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Dutch Fairy Tales for 
Young Folks 


By 

WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS 

Author of “The Firefly's Lovers “ The Unmannerly 
Tiger f “ Brave Little Holland “Bonnie 
Scotland, ' etc. 



NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright, iqiB, 

By Thomas Y. Crowell Company 



OCT 31 1918 

©CI.A506406 




Contents 


The Entangled Mermaid i 

The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese . . . n 

The Princess with Twenty Petticoats . . 20 

The Cat and the Cradle 29 

Prince Spin Head and Miss Snow White . . 39 

The Boar with the Golden Bristles ... 49 

The Ice King and His Wonderful Grandchild . 5 7 

The Elves and their Antics .... 65 

The Kabouters and the Bells .... 78 

The Woman with Three Hundred and Sixty- 

Six Children 92 

The Oni on His Travels 105 

The Legend of the Wooden Shoe . . .116 

The Curly-Tailed Lion 127 

Brabo and the Giant 139 

The Farm that Ran Away and Came Back . 147 

Santa Klaas and Black Pete . . . .158 

The Goblins Turned to Stone . . . .166 

The Mouldy Penny 174 

The Golden Helmet 187 

When Wheat Worked Woe . . • 198 

Why the Stork Loves Holland .... 209 

iii 


Dutch Fairy Tales for 
Young Folks 


THE ENTANGLED MERMAID 



ONG ago, in Dutch Fairy Land, there 


lived a young mermaid who was very 


proud of her good looks. She was one 
of a family of mere or lake folks dwelling not 
far from the sea. Her home was a great pool 
of water that was half salt and half fresh, for it 
lay around an island near the mouth of a river. 

Part of the day, when the sea tides were out, 
she splashed and played, dived and swam in the 
soft water of the inland current. When the 
ocean heaved and the salt water rushed in, the 
mermaid floated and frolicked and paddled to 
her heart’s content. Her father was a gray- 
bearded merryman and very proud of his hand- 
some daughter. He owned an island near the 
river mouth, where the young mermaids held 
their picnics and parties and received the visits 
of young merrymen. 


2 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Her mother and two aunts were merwomen. 
All of these were sober folks and attended to 
the business which occupies all well brought up 
mermaids and merrymen. This was to keep 
their pool clean and nice. No frogs, toads or 
eels were allowed near, but in the work of daily 
housecleaning, the storks and the mermaids were 
great friends. 

All water-creatures that were not thought to 
be polite and well behaved were expected to 
keep away. Even some silly birds, such as loons 
and plovers and all screaming and fighting crea- 
tures with wings, were warned off the premises, 
because they were not wanted. This family of 
merry folks liked to have a nice, quiet time by 
themselves, without any rude folks on legs, or 
with wings or fins from the outside. Indeed 
they wished to make their pool a model, for all 
respectable mermaids and merrymen, for ten 
leagues around. It was very funny to see the 
old daddy merman, with a switch made of reeds, 
shooing off the saucy birds, such as the sand- 
pipers and screeching gulls. For the bullfrogs, 
too big for the storks to swallow, and for impu- 
dent fishes, he had a whip made of seaweed. 

Of course, all the mermaids in good society 
were welcome, but young mermen were allowed 
to call only once a month, during the week when 
the moon was full. Then the evenings were 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


3 

usually clear, so that when the party broke up, 
the mermen could see their way in the moonlight 
to swim home safely with their mermaid friends. 
For, there were sea monsters that loved to plague 
the merefolk, and even threatened to eat them 
up! The mermaids, dear creatures, had to be 
escorted home, but they felt safe, for their 
mermen brothers and daddies were so fierce that, 
except sharks, even the larger fish, such as por- 
poises and dolphins were afraid to come near 
them. 

One day daddy and the mother left to visit 
some relatives near the island of Urk. They 
were to be gone several days. Meanwhile, their 
daughter was to have a party, her aunts being 
the chaperones. 

The mermaids usually held their picnics on an 
island in the midst of the pool. Here they would 
sit and sun themselves. They talked about the 
fashions and the prettiest way to dress their hair. 
Each one had a pocket mirror, but where they 
kept these, while swimming, no mortal ever found 
out. They made wreaths of bright colored sea- 
weed, orange and black, blue, gray and red and 
wore them on their brows like coronets. Or, 
they twined them, along with sea berries and 
bubble blossoms, among their tresses. Some- 
times they made girdles of the strongest and 
knotted them around their waists. 


4 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Every once in a while they chose a queen of 
beauty for their ruler. Then each of the others 
pretended to be a princess. Their games and 
sports often lasted all day and they were very 
happy. 

Swimming out in the salt water, the mermaids 
would go in quest of pearls, coral, ambergris and 
other pretty things. These they would bring to 
their queen, or with them richly adorn them- 
selves. Thus the Mermaid Queen and her 
maidens made a court of beauty that was famed 
wherever mermaids and merrymen lived. They 
often talked about human maids. 

“ How funny it must be to wear clothes,” 
said one. 

“ Are they cold that they have to keep 
warm? ” It was a little chit of a mermaid, 
whose flippers had hardly begun to grow into 
hands, that asked this question. 

“ How can they swim with petticoats on? ” 
asked another. 

“ My brother heard that real men wear 
wooden shoes! These must bother them, when 
on the water, to have their feet floating,” said a 
third, whose name was Silver Scales. “ What a 
pity they don’t have flukes like us,” and then she 
looked at her own glistening scaly coat in 
admiration. 

“ I can hardly believe it,” said a mermaid, that 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


5 


was very proud of her fine figure and slender 
waist. “ Their girls can’t be half as pretty as 
we are.” 

“ Well, I should like to be a real woman for a 
while, just to try it, and see how it feels to walk 
on legs,” said another, rather demurely, as if 
afraid the other mermaids might not like her 
remark. 

They didn’t. Out sounded a lusty chorus, 
“N o! No! Horrible! What an idea! Who 
wouldn’t be a mermaid? ” 

“ Why, I’ve heard,” cried one, “ that real 
women have to work, wash their husband’s 
clothes, milk cows, dig potatoes, scrub floors and 
take care of calves. Who would be a woman? 
Not I ” — and her snub nose — since it could not 
turn up — grew wide at the roots. She was 
sneering at the idea that a creature in petticoats 
could ever look lovelier than one in shining 
scales. 

“ Besides,” said she, “ think of their big noses, 
and I’m told, too, that girls have even to wear 
hairpins.” 

At this — the very thought that any one should 
have to bind up their tresses — there was a shock 
of disgust with some, while others clapped their 
hands, partly in envy and partly in glee. 

But the funniest things the mermaids heard of 
were gloves, and they laughed heartily over such 


6 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


things as covers for the fingers. Just for fun, 
one of the little mermaids used to draw some 
bag-like seaweed over her hands, to see how such 
things looked. 

One day, while sunning themselves in the 
grass on the island, one of their number found 
a bush on which foxgloves grew. Plucking 
these, she covered each one of her fingers with a 
red flower. Then, flopping over to the other 
girls, she held up her gloved hands. Half in 
fright and half in envy, they heard her story. 

After listening, the party was about to break 
up, when suddenly a young merman splashed 
into view. The tide was running out and the 
stream low, so he had had hard work to get 
through the fresh water of the river and to the 
island. His eyes dropped salt water, as if he 
were crying. He looked tired, while puffing 
and blowing, and he could hardly get his breath. 
The queen of the mermaids asked him what he 
meant by coming among her maids at such an 
hour and in such condition. 

At this the bashful merman began to blubber. 
Some of the meregirls put their hands over their 
mouths to hide their laughing, while they winked 
at each other and their eyes showed how they 
enjoyed the fun. To have a merman among 
them, at that hour, in broad daylight, and crying, 
was too much for dignity. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


7 


“ Boo-hoo, boo-hoo,” and the merman still 
wept salt water tears, as he tried to catch his 
breath. At last, he talked sensibly. He warned 
the Queen that a party of horrid men, in 
wooden shoes, with pickaxes, spades and pumps, 
were coming to drain the swamp and pump out 
the pool. He had heard that they would make 
the river a canal and build a dyke that should 
keep out the ocean. 

“Alas! alas!” cried one mermaid, wringing 
her hands. “ Where shall we go when our pool 
is destroyed? We can’t live in the ocean all the 
time.” Then she wept copiously. The salt 
water tears fell from her great round eyes in big 
drops. 

“ Hush! ” cried tHe Queen. “ I don’t believe 
the merman’s story. He only tells it to frighten 
us. It’s just like him.” 

In fact, the Queen suspected that the mer- 
man’s story was all a sham and that he had come 
among her maids with a set purpose to run off 
with Silver Scales. She was one of the prettiest 
mermaids in the company, but very young, vain 
and frivolous. It was no secret that she and the 
merman were in love and wanted to get married. 

So the Queen, without even thanking him, 
dismissed the swimming messenger. After din- 
ner, the companjr broke up and the Queen retired 
to her cave to take a long nap! She was quite 


8 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


tired after entertaining so much company. Be- 
sides, since daddy and mother were away, and 
there were no beaus to entertain, since it was a 
dark night and no moon shining on the water, 
why need she get up early in the morning? 

So the Mermaid Queen slept much longer 
than ever before. Indeed, it was not till near 
sunset the next day that she awoke. Then, tak- 
ing her comb and mirror in hand, she started to 
swim and splash in the pool, in order to smooth 
out her tresses and get ready for supper. 

But oh, what a change from the day before! 
What was the matter? All around her things 
looked different. The water had fallen low and 
the pool was nearly empty. The river, instead 
of flowing, was as quiet as a pond. Horrors! 
when she swam forward, what should she see 
but a dyke and fences ! An army of horrid men 
had come, when she was asleep, and built a dam. 
They had fenced round the swamp and were 
actually beginning to dig sluices to drain the 
land. Some were at work, building a windmill 
to help in pumping out the water. 

The first thing she knew she had bumped her 
pretty nose against the dam. She thought at 
once of escaping over the logs and into the sea. 
When she tried to clamber over the top and get 
through the fence, her hair got so entangled be- 
tween the bars that she had to throw away her 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


9 


comb and mirror and try to untangle her tresses. 
The more she tried, the worse became the tangle. 
Soon her long hair was all twisted up in the 
timber. In vain were her struggles to escape. 
She was ready to die with fright, when she saw 
four horrid men rush up to seize her. She at- 
tempted to waddle away, but her long hair held 
her to the post and rails. Her modesty was so 
dreadfully shocked that she fainted away. 

When she came to herself, she found she was 
in a big long tub. A crowd of curious little girls 
and boys were looking at her, for she was on 
show as a great curiosity. They were bound 
to see her and get their money’s worth in looking, 
for they had paid a stiver (two cents) admission 
to the show. Again, before all these eyes, her 
modesty was so shocked that she gave one groan, 
flopped over and died in the tub. 

Woe to the poor father and mother at Urk! 
They came back to find their old home gone. 
Unable to get into it, they swam out to sea, 
never stopping till they reached Spitzbergen. 

What became of the body of the Mermaid 
Queen? 

Learned men came from Leyden to examine 
what was now only a specimen, and to see how 
mermaids were made up. Then her skin was 
stuffed, and glass eyes put in, where her shining 
orbs had been. After this, her body was stuffed 


io 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


and mounted in the museum, that is, set up above 
a glass case and resting upon iron rods. Artists 
came to Leyden to make pictures of her and no 
fewer than nine noblemen copied her pretty form 
and features into their coats of arms. Instead 
of the Mermaid’s Pool is now a cheese farm of 
fifty cows, a fine house and barn, and a family of 
pink-cheeked, yellow-haired children who walk 
and play in wooden shoes. 

So this particular mermaid, all because of her 
entanglement in the fence, was more famous 
when stuffed than when living, while all her 
young friends and older relatives were forgotten. 


THE BOY WHO WANTED MORE 
CHEESE 


LAAS VAN BOMMEL was a Dutch 



boy, twelve years old, who lived where 


^ cows were plentiful. He was over five 
feet high, weighed a hundred pounds, and had 
rosy cheeks. His appetite was always good and 
his mother declared his stomach had no bottom. 
His hair was of a color half-way between a carrot 
and a sweet potato. It was as thick as reeds in 
a swamp and was cut level, from under one ear 
to another. 

Ivlaas stood in a pair of timber shoes, that 
made an awful rattle when he ran fast to catch 
a rabbit, or scuffed slowly along to school over 
the brick road of his village. In summer Klaas 
was dressed in a rough, blue linen blouse. In 
winter he wore woollen breeches as wide as coffee 
bags. They were called bell trousers, and in 
shape were like a couple of cow-bells turned 
upwards. These were buttoned on to a thick 
warm jacket. Until he was five years old, 
Klaas was dressed like his sisters. Then, on his 
birthday, he had boy’s clothes, with two pockets 
in them, of which he was proud enough. 


11 


12 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Klaas was a farmer’s boy. He had rye bread 
and fresh milk for breakfast. At dinner time, 
beside cheese and bread, he was given a plate 
heaped with boiled potatoes. Into these he first 
plunged a fork and then dipped each round, 
white ball into a bowl of hot melted butter. 
Very quickly then did potato and butter disap- 
pear “ down the red lane.” At supper, he had 
bread and skim milk, left after the cream had 
been taken off, with a saucer, to make butter. 
Twice a week the children enjoyed a bowl of 
bonnyclabber or curds, with a little brown sugar 
sprinkled on the top. But at every meal there 
was cheese, usually in thin slices, which the boy 
thought not thick enough. When Klaas went 
to bed he usually fell asleep as soon as his shock 
of yellow hair touched the pillow. In summer 
time he slept till the birds began to sing, at dawn. 
In winter, when the bed felt warm and Jack 
Frost was lively, he often heard the cows talking, 
in their way, before he jumped out of his bag of 
straw, which served for a mattress. The Van 
Bommels were not rich, but everything was shin- 
ing clean. 

There was always plenty to eat at the Van 
Bommels’ house. Stacks of rye bread, a yard 
long and thicker than a man’s arm, stood on end 
in the corner of the cool, stone-lined basement. 
The loaves of dough were put in the oven once 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


*3 


a week. Baking time was a great event at the 
Van Bommels’ and no men-folks were allowed 
in the kitchen on that day, unless they were called 
in to help. As for the milk-pails and pans, 
filled or emptied, scrubbed or set in the sun 
every day to dry, and the cheeses, piled up in the 
pantry, they seemed sometimes enough to feed a 
small army. 

But Klaas always wanted more cheese. In 
other ways, he was a good boy, obedient at home, 
always ready to work on the cow-farm, and dili- 
gent in school. But at the table he never had 
enough. Sometimes his father laughed and asked 
him if he had a well, or a cave, under his jacket. 

Klaas had three younger sisters, Trintje', 
Anneke' and Saartje'; which is Dutch for Kate, 
Annie and Sallie. These, their fond mother, 
who loved them dearly, called her “orange blos- 
soms ” ; but when at dinner, Klaas would keep on, 
dipping his potatoes into the hot butter, while 
others were all through, his mother would laugh 
and call him her Buttercup. But always Klaas 
wanted more cheese. When unusually greedy, 
she twitted him as a boy “worse than Butter-and- 
Eggs that is, as troublesome as the yellow and 
white plant, called toad-flax, is to the farmer — 
very pretty, but nothing but a weed. 

One summer’s evening, after a good scolding, 
which he deserved well, Klaas moped and, almost 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


H 

crying, went to bed in bad humor. He had 
teased each one of his sisters to give him her bit 
of cheese, and this, added to his own slice, made 
his stomach feel as heavy as lead. 

Ivlaas’s bed was up in the garret. When the 
house was first built, one of the red tiles of the 
roof had been taken out and another one, made 
of glass, was put in its place. In the morning, 
this gave the boy light to put on his clothes. At 
night, in fair weather, it supplied air to his room. 

A gentle breeze was blowing from the pine 
woods on the sandy slope, not far away. So 
Ivlaas climbed up on the stool to sniff the sweet 
piny odors. He thought he saw lights dancing 
under the tree. One beam seemed to approach 
his roof hole, and coming nearer played round 
the chimney. Then it passed to and fro in front 
of him. It seemed to whisper in his ear, as it 
moved by. It looked very much as if a hundred 
fire-flies had united their cold light into one lamp. 
Then Ivlaas thought that the strange beams bore 
the shape of a lovely girl, but he only laughed at 
himself at the idea. Pretty soon, however, he 
thought the whisper became a voice. Again, he 
laughed so heartily, that he forgot his moping 
and the scolding his mother had given him. In 
fact, his eyes twinkled with delight, when the 
voice gave this invitation: 

“ There’s plenty of cheese. Come with us.” 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


15 


To make sure of it, the sleepy boy now rubbed 
bis eyes and cocked his ears. Again, the light- 
bearer spoke to him: “ Come.” 

Could it be? He had heard old people tell of 
the ladies of the wood, that whispered and 
warned travellers. In fact, he himself had often 
seen the “ fairies’ ring ” in the pine woods. To 
this, the flame-lady was inviting him. 

Again and again the moving, cold light circled 
round the red tile roof, which the moon, then 
rising and peeping over the chimneys, seemed to 
turn into silver plates. As the disc rose higher 
in the sky, he could hardly see the moving light, 
that had looked like a lady; but the voice, no 
longer a whisper, as at first, was now even 
plainer: 

“ There’s plenty of cheese. Come with us.” 

“ I’ll see what it is, anyhow,” said Klaas, as 
he drew on his thick woolen stockings and pre- 
pared to go down-stairs and out, without waking 
a soul. At the door he stepped into his wooden 
shoes. Just then the cat purred and rubbed up 
against his shins. He jumped, for he was scared; 
but looking down, for a moment, he saw the two 
balls of yellow fire in her head and knew what 
they were. Then he sped to the pine woods and 
towards the fairy ring. 

What an odd sight! At first Klaas thought 
it was a circle of big fire-flies. Then he saw 


i6 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


clearly that there were dozens of pretty creatures, 
hardly as large as dolls, but as lively as crickets. 
They were as full of light, as if lamps had wings. 
Hand in hand, they flitted and danced around 
the ring of grass, as if this was fun. 

Hardly had Klaas got over his first surprise, 
than of a sudden he felt himself surrounded by 
the fairies. Some of the strongest among them 
had left the main party in the circle and come to 
him. He felt himself pulled by their dainty 
fingers. One of them, the loveliest of all, whis- 
pered in his ear: 

“ Come, you must dance with us.” 

Then a dozen of the pretty creatures mur- 
mured in chorus: 

“ Plenty of cheese here. Plenty of cheese 
here. Come, come! ” 

Upon this, the heels of Klaas seemed as light 
as a feather. In a moment, with both hands 
clasped in those of the fairies, he was dancing in 
high glee. It was as much fun as if he were at 
the kermiss, with a row of boys and girls, hand 
in hand, swinging along the streets, as Dutch 
maids and youth do, during kermiss week. 

Klaas had not time to look hard at the fairies, 
for he was too full of the fun. He danced and 
danced, all night and until the sky in the east 
began to turn, first gray and then rosy. Then 
he tumbled down, tired out, and fell asleep. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


*7 

His head lay on the inner curve of the fairy ring, 
with his feet in the centre. 

Ivlaas felt very happy, for he had no sense of 
being tired, and he did not know he was asleep. 
He thought his fairy partners, who had danced 
with him, were now waiting on him to bring him 
cheeses. With a golden knife, they sliced them 
off and fed him out of their own hands. How 
good it tasted! He thought now he could, and 
would, eat all the cheese he had longed for all 
his life. There was no mother to scold him, or 
daddy to shake his finger at him. How de- 
lightful! 

But by and by, he wanted to stop eating and 
rest a while. His jaws were tired. His stom- 
ach seemed to be loaded with cannon-balls. He 
gasped for breath. 

But the fairies would not let him stop, for 
Dutch fairies never get tired. Flying out of the 
sky — from the north, south, east and west — they 
came, bringing cheeses. These they dropped 
down around him, until the piles of the round 
masses threatened first to enclose him as with a 
wall, and then to overtop him. There were the 
red balls from Edam, the pink and yellow 
spheres from Gouda, and the gray loaf-shaped - 
ones from Leyden. Down through the vista of 
sand, in the pine woods, he looked, and oh, hor- 
rors! There were the tallest and strongest of 


18 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

the fairies rolling along the huge, round, flat 
cheeses from Friesland! Any one of these was 
as big as a cart wheel, and would feed a regi- 
ment. The fairies trundled the heavy discs 
along, as if they were playing with hoops. They 
shouted hilariously, as, with a pine stick, they 
beat them forward like boys at play. Farm 
cheese, factory cheese, Alkmaar cheese, and, to 
crown all, cheese from Limburg — which Klaas 
never could bear, because of its strong odor. 
Soon the cakes and balls were heaped so high 
around him that the boy, as he looked up, felt 
like a frog in a well. He groaned when he 
thought the high cheese walls were tottering to 
fall on him. Then he screamed, but the fairies 
thought he was making music. They, not being 
human, do not know how a boy feels. 

At last, with a thick slice in one hand and a 
big hunk in the other, he could eat no more 
cheese; though the fairies, led by their queen, 
standing on one side, or hovering over his head, 
still urged him to take more. 

At this moment, while afraid that he would 
burst, Klaas saw the pile of cheeses, as big as a 
house, topple over. The heavy mass fell in- 
wards upon him. [With a scream of terror, he 
thought himself crushed as flat as a Friesland 
cheese. 

But he wasn’t! Waking up and rubbing his 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


l 9 


eyes, he saw the red sun rising on the sand-dunes. 
Birds were singing and the cocks were crowing 
all around him, in chorus, as if saluting him. 
Just then also the village clock chimed out the 
hour. He felt his clothes. They were wet with 
dew. He sat up to look around. There were 
no fairies, but in his mouth was a bunch of grass 
which he had been chewing lustily. 

Klaas never would tell the story of his night 
with the fairies, nor has he yet settled the ques- 
tion whether they left him because the cheese- 
house of his dream had fallen, or because day- 
light had come. 


THE PRINCESS WITH TWENTY 
PETTICOATS 


ONG, long ago, before ever a blue flax- 



flower bloomed in Holland, and when 


— * Dutch mothers wore wolf-skin clothes, 
there was a little princess, very much beloved by 
her father, who was a great king, or war chief. 
She was very pretty and fond of seeing herself. 
There were no metal mirrors in those days, nor 
any looking glass. So she went into the woods 
and before the pools and the deep, quiet water- 
courses, made reflection of her own lovely face. 
Of this pleasure she never seemed weary. 

Yet sometimes this little princess was very 
naughty. Then her temper was not nearly so 
sweet as her face. She would play in the sand 
and roll around in the woods among the leaves 
and bushes until her curls were all tangled up. 
When her nurse combed out her hair with a stone 
comb — for no other kinds were then known — she 
would fret and scold and often stamp her foot. 
When very angry, she called her nurse or gov- 
erness an “ aurochs,” — a big beast like a buffalo. 
At this, the maid put up her hands to her face. 
“ Me — an aurochs ! Horrible ! ” Then she would 


20 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 21 

feel her forehead to see if horns were growing 
there. 

The nurse — they called her “ governess,” as the 
years went on — grew tired of the behavior of the 
bad young princess. Sometimes she went and 
told her mother how naughty her daughter was, 
even to calling her an aurochs. Then the little 
girl only showed her bad temper worse. She 
rolled among the leaves all the more and mussed 
up her ringlets, so that the governess could 
hardly comb them out smooth again. 

It seemed useless to punish the perverse little 
maid by boxing her ears, pinching her arm, or 
giving her a good spanking. They even tried to 
improve her temper by taking away her dinner, 
but it did no good. 

Then the governess and mother went together 
to her father. When they complained of his 
daughter to the king, he was much worried. He 
could fight strong men with his club and spear, 
and even giants with his sword and battle-axe; 
but how to correct his little daughter, whom he 
loved as his own eyes, was too much for him. 
He had no son and the princess was his only 
child, and the hopes of the family all rested on 
her. The king wondered how she would govern 
his people, after he should die, and she became 
the queen. Yet he was glad for one thing: that, 
with all her naughtiness, she was, like her father. 


22 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


always kind to animals. Her pet was a little 
aurochs calf. Some hunters had killed the 
mother of the poor little thing in winter time. 
So the princess kept the creature warm and it 
fed out of her hand daily. 

It was in gloom and with a sad face that the 
king walked in the woods, thinking how to make 
a sweet-tempered lady out of his petulant daugh- 
ter, who was fast growing up to be a tall, fine- 
looking woman. 

Now when the king had been himself a little 
boy, he was very kind to all living creatures, wild 
and tame, dumb and with voice— yes, even to the 
trees in the forest. When a prince, the boy 
would never let the axe men cut down an oak 
until they first begged pardon of the fairy that 
lived in the tree. 

There was one big oak, especially, which was 
near the mansion of his father, the king. It was 
said that the doctors found little babies in its 
leafy branches, and brought them to their 
mothers. The prince-boy took great care of this 
tree. He was taught by a wise man to cut off 
the dead limbs, keep off the worms, and warn 
away all people seeking to break off branches — 
even for Yule-tide, which came at our Christ- 
mas time. 

Once when some hunters had chased a young 
she-aurochs, with her two calves, into the king’s 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


2 3 

park, the prince, though he was then only a boy, 
ran out and drove the rough fellows away. 
Then he sheltered and fed the aurochs family of 
three, until they were fresh and fat. After this 
he sent a skilled hunter to imitate the sound of 
an aurochs mother, to call the aurochs father to 
the edge of the woods. He then let them all go 
free, and was happy to see the dumb brutes frisk- 
ing together. 

Now that the boy-prince was grown to be a 
man and had long been king, and bad forgotten 
all about the incident of his earlier years, he was 
one day walking in the forest. 

Suddenly a gentle breeze arose and the leaves 
of the old oak tree began first to rustle and then 
to whisper. Soon the words were clear, and the 
spirit in the oak said: 

“ I have seen a thousand years pass by, since 
I was an acorn planted here. In a few moments 
I shall die and fall down. Cut my body into 
staves. Of these make a wooden petticoat, like 
a barrel, for your daughter. When her temper 
is bad, let her put it on and wear it until she 
promises to be good.” 

The king was sad at the thought of losing the 
grand old tree, under which he had played as a 
bov and his fathers before him. His countenance 
fell. 

“ Cheer up, my friend,” said the oak, “ for 


24 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


something better shall follow. When I pass 
away, you will find on this spot a blue flower 
growing. Where the forest was shall be fields, 
on which the sun shines. Then, if your daughter 
be good, young women shall spin something 
prettier than wooden petticoats. Watch for the 
blue flower. Moreover,” added the voice of the 
tree, “ that I may not be forgotten, do you take, 
henceforth, as your family name Ten Eyck” 
(which, in Dutch, means “ at the oak ”). 

At this moment, a huge aurochs rushed into 
the wood. Its long hair and shaggy mane were 
gray with age. The king, thinking the beast 
would lower his horns and charge at him, drew 
his sword to fight the mighty brute that seemed 
to weigh well-nigh a ton. 

But the aurochs stopped within ten feet of the 
king and bellowed; but, in a minute or two, the 
bellowing changed to a voice and the king heard 
these good words: 

“ I die with the oak, for we are brothers, kept 
under an enchantment for a thousand years, 
which is to end in a few moments. Neither a 
tree nor an aurochs can forget your kindness to 
us, when you were a prince. As soon as our 
spirits are released, and we both go back to our 
home in the moon, saw off my right horn and 
make of it a comb for use on your daughter’s 
curls. It will be smoother than stone.” 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


25 


In a moment a tempest arose, which drove the 
king for shelter behind some rocks hard by. 
After a few minutes, the wind ceased and the sky 
was clear. The king looked and there lay the 
oak, fallen at full length, and the aurochs lay 
lifeless beside it. 

J ust then, the king’s woodmen, who were out — 
thinking their master might be hurt — drew near. 
He ordered them to take out the right horn of the 
aurochs and to split up part of the oak for staves. 
The next day, they made a wooden petticoat and 
a horn comb. They were such novelties that 
nearly every woman in the kingdom came to see 
them. 

After this, the king called himself the Lord of 
the Land of Ten Eyck, and ever after this was 
his family name, which all his descendants bore. 
Whenever the princess showed bad temper, she 
was forced to wear the wooden petticoat. To 
have the boys and girls point at her and make fun 
of her was severe punishment. 

But a curious thing took place. It was found 
that every time the maid combed the hair of the 
princess she became gentler and more sweet tem- 
pered. She often thanked her governess and 
said she liked to have her curls smoothed with the 
new comb. She even begged her father to let 
her own one and have the comb all to herself. 
It was not long before she surprised her gov- 


26 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


erness and her parents by combing and curling 
her own hair. In truth, such a wonderful change 
came over the princess that she did not often 
have to wear the wooden petticoat, and after a 
year or two, not at all. So the gossips nearly 
forgot all about it. 

One summer’s day, as the princess was walk- 
ing in the open, sunny space, where the old oak 
had stood, she saw a blue flower. It seemed as 
beautiful as it was strange. She plucked it and 
put it in her hair. When she reached home, her 
old aunt, who had been in southern lands, de- 
clared it to be the flower of the flax. 

During that spring, millions of tiny green 
blades sprang up where the forest had been, and 
when summer came, the plants were half a yard 
high. The women learned how to put the stalks 
in water and rot the coarse, outer fibre of the 
flax. Then they took the silk-like strands from 
the inside and spun them on their spinning- 
wheels. Then they wove them into pretty cloth. 

This, when laid out on the grass, under the sun- 
shine, was bleached white. The flax thread was 
made first into linen, and then into lace. 

“ Let us name the place Groen-e'-veld ” 
(Green Field), the happy people cried, when 
they saw how green the earth was where had been 
the dark forest. So the place was ever after 
called the Green Field. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


27 

Now when the princess saw what pretty clothes 
the snow white linen made, she invented a new 
style of dress. The upper garment, or “ rok,” 
that is, the one above the waist, she called the 
“ boven rok ” and the lower one, beneath the 
waist, her “ beneden rok.” In Dutch “ boven ” 
means above and “ beneden ” means beneath. 
By and by, when, at the looms, more of the 
beautiful white linen was woven, she had a new 
petticoat made and put it on. She was so de- 
lighted with this one that she wanted more. One 
after the other, she belted them around her waist, 
until she had on twenty petticoats at a time. 
Proud she was of her skirts, even though they 
made her look like a barrel. When her mother, 
and maids, and all the women of Groen-e'-veld, 
young and old, saw the princess set the fashion, 
they all followed. It was not always easy for 
poor girls, who were to be married, to buy as 
many as twenty petticoats. But, as it was the 
fashion, every bride had to obey the rule. It 
grew to be the custom to have at least twenty; 
for only this number was thought proper. 

So, a new rule, even among the men, grew up. 
A betrothed young man, or his female relatives 
assisting him, was accustomed to make a present 
of one or more petticoats to his sweetheart to in- 
crease her wardrobe. 

Thus the fashion prevailed and still holds 


28 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


among the women of the coast. Fat or thin, tall 
or short, they pile on the petticoats and swing 
their skirts proudly as they walk or go to market, 
sell their fish, cry “ fresh herring ” in the streets, 
or do their knitting at home, or in front of their 
houses. In some parts of the country, nothing 
makes a girl so happy as to present her with a 
new petticoat. It is the fashion to have a figure 
like a barrel and wear one’s clothes so as to look 
like a small hogshead. 

By and by, the men built a dam to get plenty 
of water in winter for the rotting of the flax 
stalks. The linen industry made the people rich. 
In time, a city sprang up, which they called Rot- 
terdam, or the dam where they rotted the flax. 

And, because where had been a forest of oaks, 
with the pool and rivulet, there was now a sil- 
very stream flowing gently between verdant 
meadows, they made the arms and seal of the city 
green and white, two of the former and one of 
the latter; that is, verdure and silver. To this 
day, on the arms and flags of the great city, and 
on the high smoke-stacks of the mighty steamers 
that cross the ocean, from land to land, one sees 
the wide, white band between the two broad 
stripes of green. 




















THE CAT AND THE CRADLE 


I N the early ages, when our far-off ancestors 
lived in the woods, ate acorns, slept in caves, 
and dressed in the skins of wild animals, 
they had no horses, cows or cats. Their only 
pets and helpers were dogs. The men and the 
dogs were more like each other than they are 
now. 

However, they knew about bees. So the 
women gathered honey and from it they made 
mead. Not having any sugar, the children en- 
joyed tasting honey more than anything else, 
and it was the only sweet thing they had. 

By and by, cows were brought into the country 
and the Dutch soil being good for grass, the cows 
had plenty to eat. When these animals multi- 
plied, the people drank milk and learned to make 
cheese and butter. So the Dutch boys and girls 
grew fat and healthy. 

The oxen were so strong that they could pull 
logs of wood or draw a plough. So, little by 
little, the forests were cut down and grassy 
meadows, full of bright colored flowers, took 
their place. Houses were built and the people 
were rich and happy. 


29 


3 ° 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Yet there were still many cruel men and bad 
people in the land. Sometimes, too, floods came 
and drowned the cattle and covered the fields 
with sand, or salt water. In such times, food 
was very scarce. Thus it happened that not all 
the babies born could live, or every little child 
be fed. The baby girls especially were often 
left to die, because war was common and only 
boys, that grew into strong warriors, were 
wanted. 

It grew to be a custom that families would 
hold a council and decide whether the baby should 
be raised or not. But if any one should give the 
infant even a tiny drop of milk, or food of any 
kind, it was allowed to live and grow up. If no 
one gave it milk or honey, it died. No matter 
how much a mother might love her baby, she was 
not allowed to put milk to its lips, if the grand- 
mother or elders forbade it. The young bride, 
coming into her husband’s home, always had to 
obey his mother, for she was now as a daughter 
and one of the family. All lived together in one 
house, and the grandmother ruled all the women 
and girls that were under one roof. 

This was the way of the world, when our an- 
cestors were pagans, and not always as kind to 
little babies as our own mothers and fathers 
are now. Many times was the old grandmother 
angry, when her son had taken a wife and a girl 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 31 

was born. If the old woman expected a grand- 
son, who should grow up and be a tighter, with 
sword and spear, and it turned out to be a girl, 
she was mad as fire. Often the pretty bride* 
brought into the house, had a hard time of it, 
with her husband’s mother, if she did not in time 
have a baby boy. In those days a “ Herman,” 
a “ W ar Man ” and “ German ” were one and 
the same word. 

Now when the good missionaries came into 
Friesland, one of the first of the families to re- 
ceive the gospel was one named Altfrid. With 
his bride, who also became a Christian, Altfrid 
helped the missionary to build a church. Ey and 
by, a sweet little baby was born in the family 
and the parents were very happy. They loved 
the little thing sent from God, as fathers and 
mothers love their children now. 

But when some one went and told the pagan 
grandmother that the new baby was a girl in- 
stead of a boy, the old woman flew into a rage 
and would have gone at once to get hold of the 
baby and put it to death. Her lameness, how- 
ever, made her move slowly, and she could not 
find her crutch; for the midwife, who knew the 
bad temper of the grandmother, had purposely 
hid it. The old woman was angry, because she 
did not want any more females in the big house, 
where she thought there were already too many 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


3 2 

mouths to fill. Food was hard to get, and there 
were not enough war men to defend the tribe. 
She meant to get the new baby and throw it to 
the wolves. The old grandmother was a pagan 
and still worshipped the cruel gods that loved 
fighting. She hated the new religion, because it 
taught gentleness and peace. 

But the midwife, who was a neighbor, feared 
that the old woman was malicious and she had 
hid her crutch. This she did, so that if the baby 
was a girl, she could save its life. The midwife 
was a good woman, who had been taught that 
the Great Creator loves little girls as well as 
boys. 

So when the midwife heard the grandmother 
storm and rave, while hunting for her crutch, she 
ran first to the honey jar, dipped her forefinger 
in it and put some drops of honey on the baby’s 
tongue. Then she passed it out the window to 
some women friends, who were waiting outside. 
She knew the law, that if a child tasted food, it 
must be allowed to live. 

The kind women took the baby to their home 
and fed it carefully. A hole was drilled in the 
small end of a cow’s horn and the warm milk, 
fresh from the cow, was allowed to fall, drop by 
drop, into the baby’s mouth. In a few days the 
little one was able to suck its breakfast slowly out 
of the horn, while one of the girls held it. So the 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


33 

baby grew bigger every day. All the time it was 
carefully hidden. 

The foolish old grandmother was foiled, for 
she could never find out where the baby girl was, 
which all the time was growing strong and 
plump. Her father secretly made her a cradle 
and he and the babe’s mother came often to see 
their child. Every one called her Honig-je', or 
Little Honey. 

Now about this time, cats were brought into 
the country and the children made such pets of 
them that some of the cows seemed to be jealous 
of the attentions paid to Pussy and the kittens. 
These were the days when cows and people all 
lived under one long roof. The children learned 
to tell the time of day, whether it was morning, 
noon or night by looking into the cats’ eyes. 
These seemed to open and shut, very much as if 
they had doors. 

The fat pussy, which was brought into the 
house where Honig-je' was, seemed to be very 
fond of the little girl, and the two, the cat and 
the child, played much together. It was often 
said that the cat loved the baby even more than 
her own kittens. Every one called the affection- 
ate animal by the nickname of Dub-belt-je', 
which means Little Double; because this puss 
was twice as loving as most cat mothers are. 
When her own furry little babies were very 


34 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


young, she carried them from one place to an- 
other in her mouth. But this way, of holding 
kittens, she never tried on the baby. She seemed 
to know better. Indeed, Dub-belt- je' often won- 
dered why human babies were born so naked and 
helpless; for at an age when her kittens could 
feed themselves and run about and play with 
their tails and with each other, Honig-je' was not 
yet able to crawl. 

But other dangers were in store for the little 
girl. One day, when the men were out hunting, 
and the women went to the woods to gather nuts 
and acorns, a great flood came. The waters 
washed away the houses, so that everything 
floated into the great river, and then down to- 
wards the sea. 

What had, what would, become of our baby? 
So thought the parents of Honig-je', when they 
came back to find the houses swept away and no 
sign of their little daughter. Dub-belt- je' and 
her kittens, and all the cows, were gone too. 

Now it had happened that when the flood came 
and the house crashed down, baby was sound 
asleep. The cat, leaving its kittens, that were 
now pretty well grown up, leaped up and on to 
the top of the cradle and the two floated off to- 
gether. Pretty soon they found themselves left 
alone, with nothing in sight that was familiar, ex- 
cept one funny thing. That was a wooden shoe, 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


35 

in which was a fuzzy little yellow chicken hardly 
four days old. It had been playing in the shoe, 
when the floods came and swept it off from under 
the very beak of the old hen, that, with all her 
other chicks, was speedily drowned. 

On and on, the raging flood bore baby and 
puss, until dark night came down. For hours 
more they drifted until, happily, the cradle was 
swept into an eddy in front of a village. There 
it spun round and round, and might soon have 
been borne into the greater flood, which seemed 
to roar louder as the waters rose. 

Now a cat can see sometimes in the night, 
better even than in the day, for the darker it be- 
comes, the wider open the eyes of puss. In 
bright sunshine, at noon, the inside doors of the 
cat’s eyes close to a narrow slit, while at night 
these doors open wide. That is the reason why, 
in the days before clocks and watches were made, 
the children could tell about the time of day by 
looking at the cat’s eyes. Sometimes they named 
their pussy Klok'-oog, which means Clock Eye, 
or Bell Eye, for bell clocks are older than clocks 
with a dial, and because in Holland the bells ring 
out the hours and quarter hours. 

Puss looked up and saw the church tower 
looming up in the dark. At once she began to 
meouw and caterwaul with all her might. She 
hoped that some one in one of the houses near 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


36 

the river bank might catch the sound. But none 
seemed to hear or heed. At last, when Puss was 
nearly dead with howling, a light appeared at 
one of the windows. This showed that some one 
was up and moving. It was a boy, who was 
named Dirck, after the saint Theodoric, who had 
first, long ago, built a church in the village. 
Then Puss opened her mouth and lungs again 
and set up a regular cat-scream. This wakened 
all her other relatives in the village and every 
Tom and Kitty made answer, until there was a 
cat concert of meouws and caterwauls. 

The boy heard, rushed down-stairs, and, open- 
ing the door, listened. The wind blew out his 
candle, but the brave lad was guided by the sound 
which Pussy made. Reaching the bank, he 
threw off his wooden klomps, plunged into the 
boiling waters, and, seizing the cradle, towed it 
ashore. Then he woke up his mother and showed 
her his prize. The way that baby laughed and 
crowed, and patted the horn of milk, and kicked 
up its toes in delight over the warm* milk, which 
was brought, was a joy to see. Near the hearth, 
in the middle of the floor, Dub-belt- je', the puss, 
was given some straw for a bed and, after purr- 
ing joyfully, was soon, like the baby, sound 
asleep. 

Thus the cat warned the boy, and the boy saved 
the baby, that was very welcome in a family 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


37 


where there were no girls, but only a boy. When 
Honig-je' grew up to be a young woman, she 
looked as lovely as a princess and in the church 
was married to Dirck! It was the month of 
April and all the world was waking to flowers, 
when the wedding procession came out of the 
church and the air was sweet with the opening 
of the buds. 

Before the next New [Year’s day arrived, there 
lay in the same cradle, and put to sleep over the 
same rockers, a baby boy. When they brought 
him to the font, the good grandmother named 
him Luid-i-ger. He grew up to be the great 
missionary, whose name in Friesland is, even to- 
day, after a thousand years, a household word. 
He it was who drove out bad fairies, vile en- 
chanters, wicked spirits and terrible diseases. 
Best of all, he banished “eye-bite,” which was the 
name the people gave to witchcraft. Luid-i-ger, 
also, made it hard for the naughty elves and 
sprites that delude men. 

After this, it was easy for all the good spirits, 
that live in kind hearts and noble lives, to mul- 
tiply and prosper. The wolves were driven 
away or killed off and became very few, while 
the cattle and sheep multiplied, until everybody 
could have a woollen coat, and there was a cow 
to every person in the land. 

But the people still suffered from the floods, 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


38 

that from time to time drowned the cattle and 
human beings, and the ebb tides, that carried 
everything out to sea. Then the good mission- 
ary taught the men how to build dykes, that kept 
out the ocean and made the water of the rivers 
stay between the banks. The floods became 
fewer and fewer and at last rarely happened. 
Then Santa Ivlaas arrived, to keep alive in the 
hearts of the people the spirit of love and kind- 
ness and good cheer forever. 

At last, when nearly a hundred years had 
passed away, Honig-je', once the girl baby, and 
then the dear old lady, who was kind to every- 
body and prepared the way for Santa Ivlaas, 
died. Then, also, Dub-belt- je' the cat, that had 
nine lives in one, died with her. They buried the 
old lady under the church floor and stuffed the 
pussy that everybody, kittens, boys, girls and 
people loved. By and by, when the cat’s tail 
and fur fell to pieces, and ears tumbled off, and 
its glass eyes dropped out, a skilful artist 
chiselled a statue of Dub-belt- je', which still 
stands over the tomb in the church. Every year, 
on Santa Klaas day, December sixth, the children 
put a new collar around its neck and talk about 
the cat that saved a baby’s life. 


PRINCE SPIN HEAD AND MISS 
SNOW WHITE 


L ONG, long ago, before the Romans came 
into the land and when the fairies ruled 
in the forest, there was a maiden who lived 
under an oak tree. When she was a baby they 
called her Bundlekin. She had four brothers, 
who loved their younger sister very dearly and 
did everything they could to make her happy. 
Her fat father was a famous hunter. When he 
roamed the woods, no bear, wolf, aurochs, roe- 
buck, deer, or big animal of any kind, could 
escape from his arrows, his spear, or his pit-trap. 
He taught his sons to be skilful in the chase, but 
also to be kind to the dumb creatures when cap- 
tured. Especially when the mother beast was 
killed, the boys were always told to care for the 
cubs, whelps and kittens. As for the smaller 
animals, foxes, hares, weasels, rabbits and ermine, 
these were so numerous, that the father left the 
business of hunting them to the lads, who had 
great sport. 

The house under the oak tree was always well 
provided with meat and furs. The four brothers 
39 


40 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


brought the little animals, which they took in 
the woods, to make presents to their sister. So 
there was always a plenty of pets, bear and wolf 
cubs, wildcats’ kittens and baby aurochs for the 
girl to play with. Every day, while the animals 
were so young as to be fed on milk, she enjoyed 
frolicking with the four-footed babies. When 
they grew bigger, she romped and sported with 
them, as if she and they were equal members of 
the same family. The older brother watched 
carefully, so that the little brutes, as they in- 
creased in size, should not bite or claw his sister, 
for he knew the fierce nature that was in wild 
creatures. Yet the maiden had wonderful 
power over these beasts of the forest, whether 
little or big. She was not very much afraid of 
them and often made them run, by looking at 
them hard in the eye. 

While the girl made a pet of the animals, her 
parents made a pet of her. The mother pre- 
j>ared the skins of the wolves and bears, until 
these were very soft, keeping the fur on, to make 
rugs for the floor, and winter coats for her chil- 
dren. The hides of the aurochs sufficed for 
rougher use, but from what had once been the 
clothes of the fawn, the weasel, the rabbit, and 
the ermine, garments were made that were 
smooth enough to suit a baby’s tender flesh. The 
forest folk wrapped their infants in swaddling 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


41 


bands made of these dressed pelts. After feed- 
ing the darling, a mother hung her baby up, 
warmly covered, to a tree branch. The cradle, 
which was a furry bag, was made of the same 
material and swung in the wind. 

Bundlekin usually fell asleep right after she 
had had her breakfast. When she woke up 
crowing, the squirrels were playing all around 
her. She even learned to watch the spiders, 
spinning their houses of silk, without being 
afraid. When Bundlekin grew up, she always 
called this curious creature, that could make silk, 
Spin Head. She jokingly called it her lover, in 
remembrance of baby days. 

It was funny to see how deft the mother was 
with her needles, fashioned from bone, and her 
rough thread, which was made of the intestines 
of the deer. From her own childhood in the 
woods, Bundlekin’s mother had been used to this 
kind of dressmaking. Now, when her daughter 
had grown, from babyhood and through her 
teens, to be a lovely maiden, fair of face and 
strong of limb, her sweet, unselfish parent was 
equal to new tasks. To the soft leather coats, 
made from the skins of fawns, martens, and 
weasels, she added trimmings of snow white 
ermine. Caps and mittens, cloaks for the body, 
and coverings for the feet, were fashioned to fit 
neatly. Fringes, here and there, were put on 


4 2 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


them, until her girl looked like a king’s daughter. 
In summer, the skins of birds and their feathers 
clothed her lightly, and with many and rich 
colors, while the forest flowers decked her hair. 

In winter, in her white forest robes, the maiden, 
except for her rosy face and sparkling eyes, 
seemed as if she might have been born of the 
snow, or was a daughter of the northern ice god 
at Ulrum. And because she was so lovely, her 
parents changed her baby name and called her 
Dri'-fa, which means Snow White. 

Yet, though no other girl in Gelderland 
equalled, and none, not even the princesses, ex- 
celled Snow White in beauty of face, form, or 
raiment, the maiden was not happy, even though 
many lovers came to her and offered to marry 
her. Some, as proof of their skill as hunters, 
brought the finest furs the forest furnished. 
Others showed their strength or fleetness of foot. 
Some bargained with the kabouters, or fairies of 
the mines, to bring them shining ore or precious 
gems which they offered to Snow White. Others, 
again, went afar to get strange wonders, amber 
and ambergris, from the seashores of the far 
north to please her. One fine fellow, who had 
been in the south and was proud of his travels, 
told her of what he had seen in the great cities, 
and offered her a necklace of pearls. 

But all was in vain. Every lover went away 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


43 

sorrowful, for Snow White wearied of them and 
sent each one home, disappointed. 

Last of all, among the lovers came a strange 
looking one, named Spin Head, resembling a 
spider, promising a secret worth more than furs, 
gold, gems, or necklace; but the mother, see- 
ing the ugly creature, drove it off with hard 
words. 

So the months and years passed, until her 
father feared he would not live to see his daugh- 
ter a wife. 

But one day, when all in the household were 
absent, the leaves of the oak tree rustled loudly. 
There was no wind, and Snow White, sur- 
prised, strained her ears to find out what this 
might mean. Soon she could make out these 
words : 

“ When the spider, that you called Spin Head, 
comes to make love to you, listen to him. He is 
the wisest being in all the forest. He knows the 
future. He will tell you a secret. I shall pass 
away, but what he teaches you shall live.” 

Then the leaves of the oak ceased to rustle and 
all was quiet and still again. 

While wondering what this message might 
mean, down came the real spider she had named 
Spin Head. He lowered himself from a tree 
branch, high above on a silken thread. The 
creature sat down on the log beside the maiden; 


44 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


but she was not in the least startled and did not 
scream nor run away. Indeed, she spoke to the 
spider as an old friend: 

“ Well, playmate of my babyhood, what have 
you to tell me? ” 

“ I came to offer you my love. You need not 
marry me yet, but if you will let me spin a web 
in your room, I shall live there, and, by and by, 
reward you. Let me be in your sight always, 
and you will not be sorry for it.” 

The maiden had no sooner agreed than a ter- 
rible tempest uprooted the oak and levelled the 
trees of the forest. In a moment more, a new 
and very beautiful house rose up out of the 
ground. It was as noble to look at as a palace. 
Near by was a garden, and one day when she 
walked in it, out of it sprang a blue flower, al- 
most under her feet. 

“ Choose the best room for your own self,” 
said Spin Head, “ and then show me my corner. 
After a hundred days, if you treat me kindly, I 
shall reveal the secret of that blue flower.” 

Dri'-fa, the maiden, chose the sunniest room, 
and gave Spin Head the best corner, near the 
window and close to the ceiling. At once he be- 
gan to weave a shining web for his own house. 
She wondered at such fine work, which no 
human weaver could excel, and why she was not 
able to spin silk out of her head, nor even with 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


45 

her fingers, like her strange lover. But the oak 
had promised that Spin Head would reveal a 
secret, and she was curious to know what it was. 
Like all girls, she was in a hurry to have the 
secret. To ease her impatience, Dri'-fa looked 
on, while Spin Head was thus busy at making his 
dwelling place, with shining threads which he 
spun out, never ceasing. She was so intent upon 
watching him that night came down before she 
noticed that her room was not furnished. There 
was not even a bed to sleep on. 

Spin Head looked at her closely and then 
spoke with a deep voice, like a man’s: 

“ Ah, I know, you want a bed, and pretty 
things for your room.” 

In another moment, soft furs lined the floor, 
and soon all that Dri'-fa had possessed in the 
forest for comfort she had now, and more. Lost 
in wonder as she was, in a few minutes she was 
fast asleep. 

She dreamed she wore a dress of some strange, 
new, white fabric, such as her people had never 
seen before. Instead of being close in texture, 
like the skin of an animal, it was as open work, 
full of thousands of little holes, yet strongly held 
together. It was light and gauzy, like a silvery 
spider’s web on the summer grass before sun- 
rise, when pearly with dewdrops. 

The hundred days were passing swiftly by. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


46 

and Spin Head and Snow White had become 
fast friends. Each lived in a different world — a 
world within a world. She was waiting for the 
secret he would tell her. She bravely resolved 
not to be impatient, but let Spin Head speak 
first. 

One day, when autumn had come and she was 
lonely, she sauntered out into the garden. The 
chill winds were blowing and the leaves falling, 
till they covered the ground like a yellow carpet. 
One fell into her hand, as if it bore words of 
friendly greeting. Yet, though she waited, not 
one of the millions of them brought a message to 
her! Never a word had she ever heard from her 
parents and brothers ! The blue flower had long 
ago fallen away and there was nothing in its 
place but a hard, rough, black stalk. Then, she 
said to herself : 

“ Is there anything in this ugly stick? How 
will Spin Head reveal his secret ?” Never 
had she been so cast down. 

Again the tempest howled. All the winds of 
heaven seemed to have broken loose. Many a 
sturdy oak lay prostrate. The leaves darkened 
the air, so that Snow White could see nothing. 
Then there was a great calm. The maid cleared 
her sight, and lo! there, beside her, stood a youth, 
more beautiful than any of her brothers, or her 
lovers, or any man she had ever seen. He was 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


47 

dressed in fine white clothing, excelling in its 
texture any skin of fawn, or animal of the forest. 
Instead of being leather, however soft, it seemed 
woven of a multitude of threads. In his hand 
he held the black stalk of what had been the blue 
flower. 

“ I am Spin Head,” he said. “ The hundred 
days are over. The spell is broken and my de- 
liverance from enchantment has come. I bring 
to you, as my gift, this ugly stalk, on which the 
blue flower bloomed.” 

Between surprise at the change of Spin Head 
from a spider to a handsome youth, and disap- 
pointment at such a present offered her, Snow 
White was dumb. She could hardly draw her 
breath. Was that all? 

“ Break it open,” said Spin Head. 

Splitting the stalk from end to end, the maiden 
was surprised to find inside many long silky 
fibres, almost as fine as the strands in a spider’s 
web. She pulled them out and her eyes danced 
with joy. 

“ Plant the seed and let the blue flowers 
blossom by the million,” said the youth. “ Then 
gather the stalks and, from the fibres, weave them 
together and make this. The black rod is a 
sceptre of wealth.” 

Then, separating the delicate strands one by 
one, Spin Head wove them together. The result 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


48 

was a rich robe, of a snow white fabric, never 
seen in the forest. It was linen. 

Snow White clapped her hands with joy. 

“ ’Tis for your wedding dress, if you will 
marry me,” said Spin Head. 

Snow White’s cheeks blushed red, but she 
looked at him and her eyes said “ yes.” 

“ Wait,” said Spin Head. “ I’ll make you a 
bridal veil.” 

Once more his fingers wrought wonders. He 
produced yards of a gauzy, open work stuff. He 
made it float in the air first. Then he threw it 
over her head. It trailed down her back and 
covered her rosy face. It was lace. 

Happily married, they left the forest and 
travelled into the land where the blue flax flowers 
made a new sky on the earth. Soon on the map 
men read the names of cities unknown before. 
At a time when Europe had no such masses of 
happy people, joyous in their toil, Courtrai, 
Tournay, Ypres, Ghent, and Bruges told what 
the blue flower of the flax had done for the coun- 
try. More than gold, gems, or the wealth of 
forest or mine, was the gift of Spin Head to 
Snow White, for the making of Belgic Land. 


THE BOAR WITH THE GOLDEN 
BRISTLES 

ONG, long ago, there were brave fighters 



and skilful hunters in Holland, but 


neither men nor women ever dreamed 
that food was to be got out of the ground, but 
only from the trees and bushes, such as berries, 
acorns and honey. They thought the crust of 
the earth was too hard to be broken up for seed, 
even if they knew what grain and bread were. 
They supposed that what nature provided in the 
forest was the only food for men. Besides this, 
they made their women do all the work and cook 
the acorns and brew the honey into mead, while 
they went out to fish and hunt and fight. 

So the fairies took pity on the cold, northern 
people, who lived where it rained and snowed a 
great deal. They held a council and agreed that 
it was time to send down to the earth an animal, 
with tusks, to tear up the ground. Then the 
people would see the riches of the earth and learn 
what soil was. They would be blessed with 
farms and gardens, barns and stalls, hay and 
grain, horses and cattle, wheat and barley, pigs 
and clover. 


49 


5 ° 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Now there were powerful fairies, of a certain 
kind, who lived in a Happy Land far, far away, 
who had charge of everything in the air and 
water. One of them was named Fro, who be- 
came lord of the summer sunshine and warm 
showers, that make all things grow. It was in 
this bright region that the white elves lived. 

It was a pretty custom in fairy-land that 
when a fairy baby cut its first tooth, the mother’s 
friends should make the little one some pretty 
present. 

When Nerthus, the mother of the infant Fro, 
looked into its mouth and saw the little white 
thing that had come up through the baby’s gums, 
she went in great glee and told the glad news to 
all the other fairies. It was a great event and 
she tried to guess what present her wonderful 
bov-baby should receive. 

There was one giant-like fairy as strong as a 
polar bear, who agreed to get, for little Fro, a 
creature that could put his nose under the sod and 
root up the ground. In this way he would show 
men what the earth, just under its surface, con- 
tained, without their going into mines and 
caverns. 

One day this giant fairy heard two stout 
dwarfs talking loudly in the region under the 
earth. They were boasting as to which could 
beat the other at the fire and bellows, for both 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


5i 


were blacksmiths. One was the king of the 
dwarfs, who made a bet that he could excel the 
other. So he set them to work as rivals, while a 
third dwarf worked the bellows. The dwarf- 
king threw some gold in the flames to melt; but, 
fearing he might not win the bet, he went away 
to get other fairies to help him. He told the 
bellows dwarf to keep on pumping air on the fire, 
no matter what might happen to him. 

So when one giant fairy, in the form of a 
gadfly, flew at him, and bit him in the hand, the 
bellows-blower did not stop for the pain, but kept 
on until the fire roared loudly, as to make the 
cavern echo. Then all the gold melted and could 
be transformed. As soon as the dwarf-king 
came back, the bellows-blower took up the tongs 
and drew out of the fire a boar having golden 
bristles. 

This fire-born golden boar had the power of 
travelling through the air as swiftly as a streak 
of lightning. It was named Guilin, or Golden, 
and was given to the fairy Fro, and he, when 
grown, used the wonderful creature as his steed. 
All the other good fairies and the elves rejoiced, 
because men on the earth would now be helped to 
do great things. 

Even more wonderful to tell, this fire-born 
creature became the father of all tHe animals 
that have tusks and that roam in the woods. A 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


5 2 

tusk is a big tooth, of which the hardest and 
sharpest part grows, long and sharp, outside of 
the mouth and it stays there, even when the 
mouth is shut. 

When Guilin was not occupied, or being 
ridden by Fro on his errands over the world, he 
taught his sons, that is, the wild boars of the 
forest, how to root up the ground and make it 
soft for things to grow in. Then his master Fro 
sent the sunbeams and the warm showers to make 
the turned-up earth fruitful. 

To do this, the wild boars were given two long 
tusks, as pointed as needles and sharp as knives. 
With one sweep of his head a boar could rip open 
a dog or a wolf, a bull or a bear, or furrow the 
earth like a ploughshare. 

Now there were several cousins in the Tusk 
family. The elephant on land, and the walrus 
and narwhal in the seas; but none of these could 
plough ground, but because the boar’s tusks grew 
out so long and were so sharp, and hooked at the 
end, it could tear open the earth’s hard crust and 
root up the ground. This made a soil lit for 
tender plants to grow in, and even the wild 
flowers sprang up in them. 

All this, when they first noticed it, was very 
wonderful to human beings. The children 
called one to the other to come and see the un- 
usual sight. The little troughs, made first by 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


53 


the ripping of the boar’s tusks, were widened by 
rooting with their snouts. These were welcomed 
by the birds, for they hopped into the lines thus 
made, to feed on the worms. So the birds, sup- 
posing that these little gutters in the ground were 
made especially for them, made great friends 
with the boars. They would even perch near by, 
or fly to their backs, and ride on them. 

As for the men fathers, when they looked at 
the clods and the loose earth thus turned over, 
they found them to be very soft. So the women 
and girls were able to break them up with their 
sticks. Then the seeds, dropped by the birds 
that came flying back every spring time, from 
far-away lands, sprouted. It was noticed that 
new kinds of plants grew up, which had stalks. 
In the heads or ears of these were a hundredfold 
more seeds. When the children tasted them, 
they found, to their delight, that the little grains 
were good to eat. They swallowed them whole, 
they roasted them at the fire, or they pounded 
them with stones. Then they baked the meal 
thus made or made it into mush, eating it with 
honey. 

For the first time people in the Dutch world 
had bread. When they added the honey, brought 
by the bees, they had sweet cakes with mead. 
Then, saving the seeds over, from one summer to 
another, they in the spring time planted them in 


54 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


the little trenches made by the animal’s tusks. 
Then the Dutch words for “ boar ” and “ row ” 
were put together, meaning boar row, and there 
issued, in time, our word “ furrow.” 

The women were the first to become skilful in 
baking. In the beginning they used hot stones 
on which to lay the lump of meal, or flour and 
water, or the batter. Then having learned about 
yeast, which “ raised ” the flour, that is, lifted it 
up, with gas and bubbles, they made real bread 
and cakes and baked them in the ovens which 
the men had made. When they put a slice of 
meat between upper and lower layers of bread, 
they called it “ broodje,” that is, little bread; or, 
sandwich. In time, instead of one kind of bread, 
or cake, they had a dozen or twenty different 
sorts, besides griddle cakes and waffles. 

Now when the wise men of the mark, or neigh- 
borhood, saw that the women did such wonderful 
things, they put their heads together and said one 
to the other: 

“ We are quite ready to confess that fairies, 
and elves, and even the kabouters are smarter 
than we are. Our women, also, are certainly 
wonderful; but it will never do to let the boars 
think that they know more than we do. They 
did indeed teach us how to make furrows, and the 
birds brought us grain; but we are the greater, 
for we can hunt and kill the boars with our spears. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


55 


Although they can tear up the sod and root in 
the ground with tusk and snout, they cannot 
make cakes, as our women can. So let us see 
if we cannot beat both the boars and birds, and 
even excel our women. We shall be more like 
the fairies, if we invent something that will out- 
shine them all.” 

So they thought and planned, and, little by 
little, they made the plough. First, with a 
sharp stick in their hands, the men scratched the 
surface of the ground into lines that were not 
very deep. Then they nailed plates of iron on 
those sticks. Next, they fixed this iron-shod 
wood in a frame to be pulled forward, and, by 
and by, they added handles. Men and women, 
harnessed together, pulled the plough. Indeed 
it was ages before they had oxen to do this heavy 
work for them. At last the perfect plough was 
seen. It had a knife in front to cut the clods, a 
coulter, a beam, a mould board and handles, and, 
after a while, a wheel to keep it straight. Then 
they set horses to draw it. 

Fro the fairy was the owner, not only of the 
boar with the golden bristles, but also of the 
lightning-like horse, Sleipnir, that could ride 
through fire and water with the speed of light. 
Fro also owned the magic ship, which could navi- 
gate both land and sea. It was so very elastic 
that it could be stretched out to carry a host of 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


56 

warriors over the seas to war, or fold up like a 
lady’s handkerchief. With this flying vessel. 
Fro was able to move about like a cloud and also 
to change like them. He could also appear, or 
disappear, as he pleased, in one place or another. 

By and by, the wild boars were all hunted to 
death and disappeared. Yet in one way, and a 
glorious one also, their name and fame were kept 
in men’s memories. Brave knights had the 
boar’s head painted on their shields and coats 
of arms. When the faith of the Prince of Peace 
made wars less frequent, the temples in honor of 
Fro were deserted, but the yule log and the 
revels, held to celebrate the passing of the Mother 
Night, in December, that is, the longest one of 
the year, were changed for the Christmas festival. 

Then again, the memory of man’s teacher of 
the plough was still kept green ; for the boar was 
remembered as the giver, not only of nourishing 
meat, but of ideas for men’s brains. Baked in 
the oven, and made delightful to the appetite, 
served on the dish, with its own savory odors; 
withal, decorated with sprigs of rosemary, the 
boar’s head was brought in for the great dinner, 
with the singing of Christmas carols. 


THE ICE KING AND HIS WONDER- 
FUL GRANDCHILD 

I N the far-off ages, all the lands of northern 
Europe were one, for the deep seas had not 
yet separated them. Then our forefathers 
thought that fairies were gods. They built 
temples in their honor, and prayed to them. 
Then, in the place where is now the little town of 
Ulrum in Friesland was the home of the spirit 
in the ice, Uller. That is what Ulrum means, 
the home of the good fairy Uller. 

Uller was the patron of boys and girls. They 
liked him, because he invented skates and sleds 
and sleighs. He had charge of things in winter 
and enjoyed the cold. He delighted also in 
hunting. Dressed in thick furs, he loved to roam 
over the hills and through the forests, seeking 
out the wolf, the bear, the deer, and the aurochs. 
His bow and arrows were terrible, for they were 
very big and he was a sure shot. Being the 
patron of archery, hunters always sought his 
favor. The yew tree was sacred to Uller, be- 
cause the best bows were made from its wood. 
No one could cut down a yew tree without anger- 
ing Uller. 


57 


58 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Nobody knew who Uller’s father was, and if 
he knew himself, he did not care to tell any one. 
He would not bestow many blessings upon man- 
kind; yet thousands of people used to come to 
Ulrum every year to invoke his aid and ask him 
to send a heavy fall of snow to cover the ground. 
That meant good crops of food for the next 
year. The white snow, lying thick upon the 
ground, kept hack the frost giants from biting 
the earth too hard. Because of deep winter 
snows, the ground was soft during the next sum- 
mer. So the seed sprouted more easily and 
there was plenty to eat. 

When Uller travelled over the winter snow, 
to go out on hunting trips, he strapped snow- 
shoes on his feet. Because these were shaped 
like a warrior’s shield, Uller was often called 
the shield-god. His protection was especially 
invoked by men who fought duels with sword or 
spear, which were very common in early days ; or 
by soldiers or hunters, who wished to he very 
brave, or had engaged in perilous ventures. 

Now when Uller wanted a wife to marry him, 
he made love to Skadi, because she was a huntress 
and liked the things which he liked. So they 
never had a quarrel. She was very strong, fond 
of sports, and of chasing the wild animals. She 
wore a short skirt, which allowed freedom of 
motion to her limbs. Then she ranged over the 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


59 


hills and valleys with wonderful swiftness. So 
rapid were her movements that many people 
likened her to the cold mountain stream, that 
leaps down from the high peaks and over the 
rocks, foaming and dashing to the lowlands. 
They gave the same name to both this fairy 
woman and the water, because they were so much 
alike. 

Indeed Skadi was very lovely to look at. It 
was no wonder that many of the gods, fairies and 
men fell in love with her. It is even said that she 
had had several husbands before marrying Uller. 
When you look at her pictures, you will see that 
she was as pretty as bright winter itself, when 
Jack Frost clothes the trees with white and makes 
the cheeks of the girls so rosy. She wore armor 
of shining steel, a silver helmet, short white skirts 
and white fur leggings. Her snow-shoes were 
of the hue of winter. Besides a glittering spear, 
she had a bow and sharp arrows. These were 
held in a silver quiver slung over her shoulders. 
Altogether, she looked like winter alive. She 
loved to live in the mountains, and hear the thun- 
ders of cataracts, the crash of avalanches, the 
moaning of the winds in the pine forests. Even 
the howling of wolves was music in her ears. 
She was afraid of nothing. 

Now from such a father and mother one would 
expect wonderful children, yet very much like 


6o 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


their parents. It turned out that the offspring 
of Uller and Skadi were all daughters. To 
them — one after another — were given the names 
meaning Glacier, Cold, Snow, Drift, Snow 
Whirl, and Snow Dust, the oldest being the 
biggest and hardiest. The others were in de- 
gree softer and more easily influenced by the sun 
and the wind. They all looked alike, so that 
some people called them the Six White Sisters. 

Yet they were all so great and powerful that 
many considered them giantesses. It was not 
possible for men to tame them, for they did very 
much as they pleased. No one could stop their 
doings or drive them away, except Woden, who 
was the god of the sun. Yet in winter, even he 
left off ruling the world and went away. Dur- 
ing that time, that is, during seven months, Uller 
took Woden’s throne and governed the affairs 
of the world. When summer came, Uller went 
with his wife up to the North Pole; or they lived 
in a house, on the top of the Alps. There they 
could hunt and roam on their snow-shoes. To 
these cold places, which the whole family en- 
joyed, their daughters went also and all were 
very happy so far above the earth. 

Things went on pleasantly in Uller’s family 
so long as his daughters were young, for then 
the girls found enough to delight in at their 
daily play. But when grown up and their heads 

































































































* 





























DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


6i 


began to be filled with notions about the young 
giants, who paid visits to them, then the family 
troubles began. 

There was one young giant fairy named Vuur, 
who came often to see all six of Uller’s daugh- 
ters, from the youngest to the oldest. Yet no 
one could tell which of them he was in love with, 
or could name the girl he liked best ; no, not even 
the daughters themselves. His character and 
his qualities were not well known, for he put on 
many disguises and appeared in many places. 
It was believed, however, that he had already 
done a good deal of mischief and was likely to 
do more, for he loved destruction. Yet he often 
helped the kabouter dwarfs to do great things; 
so that showed he was of some use. In fact he 
was the fire fairy. He kept on, courting all the 
six sisters, long after May day came, and he 
lengthened his visits until the heat turned the 
entire half dozen of them into water. So they 
became one. 

At this, Uller was so angry at Vuur’s having 
delayed so long before popping the question, and 
at his daughters’ losing their shapes, that he 
made Vuur marry them all and at once, they 
taking the name of Regen. 

Now when the child of Vuur and Regen was 
born, it turned out to be, in body and in character, 
just what people expected from such a father 


62 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


and mother. It was named in Dutch, Stoom. 
It grew fast and soon showed that it was as 
powerful as its parents had been; yet it was much 
worse, when shut up, than when allowed to go 
free in the air. Stoom loved to do all sorts of 
tricks. In the kitchen, it would make the iron 
kettle lid flop up and down with a lively noise. 
If it were confined in a vessel, whether of iron or 
earthenware, when set over the fire, it would 
blow the pot or kettle all to pieces, in order to 
get out. Thinking itself a great singer, it would 
make rather a pleasant sound, when its mother 
let it come out of a spout. Yet it never obeyed 
either of its parents. When they tried to shut 
up Stoom inside of anything, it always escaped 
with a terrible sound. In fact, nothing could 
long hold it in, without an explosion. 

Sometimes Stoom would go down into the 
bowels of the earth and turn on a stream of water 
so as to meet the deep fires which are ever burn- 
ing far down below us. Then there would come 
an awful earthquake, because Stoom wanted to 
get out, and the earth crust would not let him, 
but tried to hold him down. Sometimes Stoom 
slipped down into a volcano’s mouth. Then the 
mountain, in order to save itself from being 
choked, had to spit Stoom out, and this always 
made a terrible mess on the ground, and men 
called it lava. Or, Stoom might stay down in 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 63 

the crater as a guest, and quietly come out, oc- 
casionally, in jets and puffs. 

Even when Jack Frost was around and froze 
the pipes in the house, or turned the water of the 
pots, pans, kettles and bottles into solid ice, 
Stoom behaved very badly. If the frozen 
kettles, or any other closed vessel were put over 
the stove, or near the fire, and the ice melted at 
the bottom too fast, Stoom would blow the whole 
thing up. In this way, he often put men’s lives 
in danger and made them lose their property. 

No one seemed to know how to handle this 
mischievous fairy. Not one man on earth could 
do anything with him. So they let him have his 
own way. Yet all the time, though he was en- 
joying his own tricks and lively fun, he was, with 
his own voice, calling on human beings to use him 
properly, and harness him to wheels; for he was 
willing to be useful to them, and was all ready to 
pull or drive, lift or lower, grind or pump, as the 
need might be. 

As long as men did not treat him properly 
and give him the right to get out into the air, 
after he had done his work, Stoom would ex- 
plode, blow up and destroy everything. He 
could be made to sing, hiss, squeal, whistle, and 
make all kinds of sounds, but, unless the bands 
that held him in were strong enough, or if Vuur 
got too hot, or his mother would not give him 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


64 

drink enough, when the iron pipes were red with 
heat, he would lose his temper and explode. He 
had no respect for bad or neglected boilers, or for 
lazy or careless firemen and engineers. 

Yet properly harnessed and treated well, and 
fed with the food such as his mother can give, 
and roused by his father’s persuasion, Stoom is 
greater than any giant or fairy that ever was. 
He can drive a ship, a locomotive, a submarine, 
or an aeroplane, as fast as Fro’s boar, horse or 
ship. Everybody to-day is glad that Stoom is 
such a good servant and friend all over the world. 


THE ELVES AND THEIR ANTICS 



HE elves are the little white creatures 


that live between heaven and earth. 


They are not in the clouds, nor down 
in the caves and mines, like the kabouters. They 
are bright and fair, dwelling in the air, and in 
the world of light. The direct heat of the sun 
is usually too much for them, so they are not 
often seen during the day, except towards sun- 
set. They love the silvery moonlight. There 
used to be many folks, who thought they had 
seen the beautiful creatures, full of fun and joy, 
dancing hand in hand, in a circle. 

In these old days, long since gone by, there 
were more people than there are now, who were 
sure they had many times enjoyed the sight of 
the elves. Some places in Holland show, by 
their names^ where this kind of fairies used to 
live. These little creatures, that looked as thin 
as gauze, were very lively and mischievous, 
though they often helped honest and hard work- 
ing people in their tasks, as we shall see. But 
first and most of all, they were fond of fun. 
They loved to vex cross people and to please 
those who were bonnie and blithe. They hated 


65 


66 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


misers, but they loved the kind and generous. 
These little folks usually took their pleasure in 
the grassy meadows, among the flowers and 
butterflies. On bright nights they played among 
the moonbeams. 

There were certain times when the elves were 
busy, in such a way as to make men and girls 
think about them. Then their tricks were gen- 
erally in the stable, or in the field among the 
cows. Sometimes, in the kitchen or dairy, among 
the dishes or milk-pans, they made an awful 
mess for the maids to clean up. They tumbled 
over the churns, upset the milk jugs, and played 
hoops with the round cheeses. In a bedroom they 
made things look as if the pigs had run over 
them. 

When a farmer found his horse’s mane twisted 
into knots, or two cows with their tails tied to- 
gether, he said at once, “ That’s the work of 
elves.” If the mares did not feel well, or looked 
untidy, their owners were sure the elves had 
taken the animals out and had been riding them 
all night. If a cow was sick, or fell down on 
the grass, it was believed that the elves had shot 
an arrow into its body. The inquest, held on 
many a dead calf or its mother, was, that it died 
from an “ elf-shot.” They were so sure of this, 
that even when a stone arrow head — such as our 
far-off ancestors used in hunting, when they were 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 67 

cave men — was picked up off the ground, it was 
called an “ elf bolt,” or “ elf-arrow.” 

Near a certain village named Elf-berg or Elf 
Hill, because there were so many of the little 
people in that neighborhood, there was one very 
old elf, named Styf, which means Stiff, because 
though so old he stood up straight as a lance. 
Even more than the young elves, he was famous 
for his pranks. Sometimes he was nicknamed 
Haan-e'-kam or Cock’s Comb. He got this 
name, because he loved to mock the roosters, 
when they crowed, early in the morning. With 
his red cap on, he did look like a rooster. Some- 
times he fooled the hens, that heard him crowing. 
Old Styf loved nothing better than to go to a 
house where was a party indoors. All the 
wooden shoes of the twenty or thirty people 
within, men and women, girls and boys, would be 
left outside the door. All good Dutch folks 
step out of their heavy timber shoes, or klomps, 
before they enter a house. It is always a curious 
sight, at a country church, or gathering of peo- 
ple at a party, to see the klomps, big and little, 
belonging to baby boys and girls, and to the 
big men, who wear a number thirteen shoe 
of wood. One wonders how each one of the 
owners knows his own, but he does. Each 
pair is put in its own place, but Old Styf would 
come and mix them all up together, and then 


68 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


leave them in a pile. So when the people came 
out to go home, they had a terrible time in find- 
ing and sorting out their shoes. Often they 
scolded each other; or, some innocent boy was 
blamed for the mischief. Some did not find out, 
till the next day, that they had on one foot their 
own, and on another foot, their neighbor’s shoe. 
It usually took a week to get the klomps sorted 
out, exchanged, and the proper feet into the right 
shoes. In this way, which was a special trick 
with him, this naughty elf, Styf, spoiled the 
temper of many people. 

Beside the meadow elves, there were other 
kinds in Elfin Land; some living in the woods, 
some in the sand-dunes, but those called Staal- 
kaars, or elves of the stall, were Old Styf’s par- 
ticular friends. These lived in stables and 
among the cows. The Moss Maidens, that 
could do anything with leaves, even turning them 
into money, helped Styf, for they too liked mis- 
chief. They teased men-folks, and enjoyed noth- 
ing better than misleading the stupid fellows 
that fuddled their brains with too much liquor. 

Styf’s especially famous trick was played on 
misers. It was this. When he heard of any 
old fellow, who wanted to save the cost of 
candles, he would get a kabouter to lead him off 
in the swamps, where the sooty elves come out, 
on dark nights, to dance. Hoping to catch these 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 69 

lights and use them for candles, the mean fellow 
would find himself in a swamp, full of water and 
chilled to the marrow. Then the kabouters 
would laugh loudly. 

Old Styf had the most fun with another stingy 
fellow, who always scolded children when he 
found them spending a penny. If he saw a girl 
buying flowers, or a boy giving a copper coin for 
a waffle, he talked roughly to them for wasting 
money. Meeting this miser one day, as he was 
walking along the brick road, leading from the 
village, Styf offered to pay the old man a thou- 
sand guilders, in exchange for four striped 
tulips, that grew in his garden. The miser, 
thinking it real silver, eagerly took the money 
and put it away in his iron strong box. The 
next night, when he went, as he did three times 
a week, to count, and feel, and rub, and gloat, 
over his cash, there was nothing but leaves in a 
round form. These, at his touch, crumbled to 
pieces. The Moss Maidens laughed uproari- 
ously, when the mean old fellow was mad about 
it. 

But let no one suppose that the elves, because 
they were smarter than stupid human beings, 
were always in mischief. No, no! They did, 
indeed, have far more intelligence than dull 
grown folks, lazy boys, or careless girls; but 
many good things they did. They sewed shoes 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


70 

for poor cobblers, when they were sick, and made 
clothes for children, when the mother was tired. 
When they were around, the butter came quick 
in the churn. 

When the blue flower of the flax bloomed in 
Holland, the earth, in spring time, seemed like 
the sky. Old Styf then saw his opportunity to 
do a good thing. Men thought it a great affair 
to have even coarse linen tow for clothes. No 
longer need they hunt the wolf and deer in the 
forest, for their garments. By degrees, they 
learned to make finer stuff, both linen for 
clothes and sails for ships, and this fabric they 
spread out on the grass until the cloth was well 
bleached. When taken up, it was white as the 
summer clouds that sailed in the blue sky. All 
the world admired the product, and soon the 
word “ Holland ” was less the name of a country, 
than of a dainty fabric, so snow white, that it 
was fit to robe a queen. The world wanted more 
and more of it, and the Dutch linen weaver grew 
rich. Yet still there was more to come. 

Now, on one moonlight night in summer, the 
lady elves, beautiful creatures, dressed in gauze 
and film, with wings to fly and with feet that 
made no sound, came down into the meadows for 
their fairy dances. But when, instead of green 
grass, they saw a white landscape, they won- 
dered, Was it winter? 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


7 1 


Surely not, for the air was warm. No one 
shivered, or was cold. Y r et there were whole 
acres as white as snow, while all the old fairy 
rings, grass and flowers were hidden. 

They found that the meadows had become 
bleaching grounds, so that the cows had to go 
elsewhere to get their dinner, and that this white 
area was all linen. However, they quickly got 
over their surprise, for elves are very quick to 
notice things. But now that men had stolen a 
march on them, they asked whether, after all, 
these human beings had more intelligence than 
elves. Not one of these fairies but believed that 
men and women were the inferiors of elves. 

So, then and there, began a battle of wits. 

“ They have spoiled our dancing floor with 
their new invention; so we shall have to find 
another,” said the elfin queen, who led the party. 

“ They are very proud of their linen, these 
men are; but, without the spider to teach them, 
what could they have done? Even a wild boar 
can instruct these human beings. Let us show 
them, that we, also, can do even more. I’ll get 
Old Styf to put on his thinking cap. He’ll add 
something new that will make them prouder 
yet.” 

“ But we shall get the glory of it,” the elves 
shouted in chorus. Then they left off talking 
and began their dances, floating in the air, until 


72 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

they looked, from a distance, like a wreath of 
stars. 

The next day, a procession of lovely elf maid- 
ens and mothers waited on Styf and asked him 
to devise something that would excel the inven- 
tion of linen; which, after all, men had learned 
from the spider. 

“Yes, and they would not have any grain 
fields, if they had not learned from the wild 
boar,” added the elf queen. 

Old Styf answered “ yes ” at once to their 
request, and put on his red thinking cap. Then 
some of the girl elves giggled, for they saw that 
he did, really, look like a cock’s comb. “No 
wonder they called him Haan-e'-kam,” said one 
elf girl to the other. 

Now Old Styf enjoyed fooling, just for the 
fun of it, and he taught all the younger elves 
that those who did the most work with their hands 
and head, would have the most fun when they 
were old. 

First of all, he went at once to see Fro, the 
spirit of the golden sunshine and the warm sum- 
mer showers, who owned two of the most won- 
derful things in the world. One was his sword, 
which, as soon as it was drawn out of its sheath, 
against wicked enemies, fought of its own accord 
and won every battle. Fro’s chief enemies were 
the frost giants, who wilted the flowers and 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


73 


blasted the plants useful to man. Fro was 
absent, when Styf came, but his wife promised 
he would come next day, which he did. He 
was happy to meet all the elves and fairies, and 
they, in turn, joyfully did whatever he told 
them. Fro knew all the secrets of the grain 
fields, for he could see what was in every kernel 
of both the stalks and the ripe ears. He arrived, 
in a golden chariot, drawn by his wild boar which 
served him instead of a horse. Both chariot and 
boar drove over the tops of the ears of wheat, 
and faster than the wind. 

The Boar was named Guilin, or Golden 
Bristles because of its sunshiny color and 
splendor. In this chariot, Fro had specimens 
of all the grains, fruits, and vegetables known 
to man, from which Styf could choose, for 
these he was accustomed to scatter over the 
earth. 

When Styf told him just what he wanted to 
do, Fro picked out a sheaf of wheat and whis- 
pered a secret in his ear. Then he drove away, 
in a burst of golden glory, which dazzled even the 
elves, that loved the bright sunshine. These elves 
were always glad to see the golden chariot com- 
ing or passing by. 

Styf also summoned to his aid the kabouters, 
and, from these ugly little fellows, got some use- 
ful hints; for they, dwelling in the dark caverns, 


74 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


know many secrets which men used to name 
alchemy, and which they now call chemistry. 

Then Styf fenced himself off from all intru- 
ders, on the top of a bright, sunny hilltop, with 
his thinking cap on and made experiments for 
seven days. No elves, except his servants, were 
allowed to see him. At the end of a week, still 
keeping his secret and having instructed a dozen 
or so of the elf girls in his new art, he in- 
vited all the elves in the Low Countries to come 
to a great exhibition, which he intended to 
give. 

What a funny show it was! On one long 
bench, were half a dozen washtubs; and on a 
table, near by, were a dozen more washtubs ; and 
on a longer table not far away were six ironing 
boards, with smoothing irons. A stove, made 
hot with a peat fire, was to heat the irons. Be- 
hind the tubs and tables, stood the twelve elf 
maidens, all arrayed in shining white garments 
and caps, as spotless as snow. One might almost 
think they were white elves of the meadow and 
not kabouters of the mines. The wonder was 
that their linen clothes were not only as dainty as 
stars, but that they glistened, as if they had laid 
on the ground during a hoar frost. 

Yet it was still warm summer. Nothing had 
frozen, or melted, and the rosy-faced elf-maidens 
were as dry as an ivory fan. Yet they resembled 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


75 

the lilies of the garden when pearly with dew- 
drops. 

When all were gathered together, Old Styf 
called for some of the company, who had come 
from afar, to take off their dusty and travel- 
stained linen garments and give them to him. 
These were passed over to the trained girls wait- 
ing to receive them. In a jiffy, they were 
washed, wrung out, rinsed and dried. It was 
noticed that those elf-maidens, who were standing 
at the last tub, were intently expecting to do 
something great, while those five elf maids at the 
table took off the hot irons from the stove. They 
touched the bottom of the flat-irons with a drop 
of water to see if it rolled off hissing. They kept 
their eyes fixed on Styf, who now came forward 
before all and said, in a loud voice: 

“ Elves and fairies, moss maidens and stall 
sprites, one and all, behold our invention, 
which our great friend Fro and our no less 
helpful friends, the kabouters, have helped 
me to produce. Now watch me prove its 
virtues.” 

Forthwith he produced before all a glistening 
substance, partly in powder, and partly in square 
lumps, as white as chalk. He easily broke up a 
handful under his fingers, and flung it into the 
fifth tub, which had hot water in it. After dip- 
ping the washed garments in the white gummy 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


76 

mass, he took them up, wrung them out, dried 
them with his breath, and then handed them to 
the elf ironers. In a few moments, these held 
up, before the company, what a few minutes 
before had been only dusty and stained clothes. 
Now, they were white and resplendent. No 
fuller’s earth could have bleached them thus, nor 
added so glistening a surface. 

It was starch, a new thing for clothes. The 
fairies, one and all, clapped their hands in de- 
light. 

“What 1 shall we name it?” modestly asked 
Styf of the oldest gnome present. 

“ Hereafter, we shall call you Styf Sterk, 
Stiff Starch.” They all laughed. 

Very quickly did the Dutch folks, men and 
women, hear and make use of the elves’ inven- 
tion. Their linen closets now looked like piles 
of snow. All over the Low Countries, women 
made caps, in new fashions, of lace or plain 
linen, with horns and wings, flaps and crimps, 
with quilling and with whirligigs. Soon, in 
every town, one could read the sign “ Hier 
mangled men ” (Here we do ironing) . 

In time, kings, queens and nobles made huge 
ruffs, often so big that their necks were invisible, 
and their heads nearly lost from sight, in rings 
of quilled linen, or of lace, that stuck out a foot 
or so. Worldly people dyed their starch yellow; 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 77 

zealous folk made it blue; but moderate people 
kept it snowy white. 

Starch added money and riches to the nation. 
Kings’ treasuries became fat with money gained 
by taxes laid on ruffs, and on the cargoes of 
starch, which was now imported by the shipload, 
or made on the spot, in many countries. So, out 
of the ancient grain came a new spirit that 
worked for sweetness and beauty, cleanliness, 
and health. From a useful substance, as old as 
Egypt, was born a fine art, that added to the 
sum of the world’s wealth and pleasure. 


THE KABOUTERS AND THE BELLS 

W HEN the young queen Wilhelmina 
visited Brabant and Limburg, they 
amused her with pageants and plays, 
in which the little fellows called kabouters, in 
Dutch, and kobolds in German, played and 
showed off their tricks. Other small folk, named 
gnomes, took part in the tableaux. The kabout- 
ers are the dark elves, who live in forests and 
mines. The white elves live in the open fields 
and the sunshine. 

The gnomes do the thinking, but the kabouters 
carry out the work of mining and gathering the 
precious stones and minerals. They are short, 
thick fellows, very strong and are strenuous in 
digging out coal and iron, copper and gold. 
When they were first made, they were so ugly, 
that they had to live where they could not be 
seen, that is, in the dark places. The grown 
imps look like old men with beards, but no one 
ever heard of a kabouter that was taller than a 
yardstick. As for the babies, they are hardly 
bigger than a man’s thumb. The big boys and 
girls, in the kabouter kingdom, are not much 
over a foot high. 


78 



0 (g)o<gi.ig)»THE°C , ° I S , ‘’ < 3 > 0 

MASTER OF THE 
CHOIR TRIED A- 
GAIM AND AGAIN 






DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


79 

What is peculiar about them all is, that they 
help the good and wise people to do things bet- 
ter; but they love to plague and punish the dull 
folks, that are stupid, or foolish or naughty. In 
impish glee, they lure the blockheads, or in 
Dutch, the “ cheese-heads,” to do worse. 

A long time ago, there were no church spires 
or bells in the land of the Dutch folks, as there 
are now by the thousands. The good teachers 
from the South came into the country and 
taught the people to have better manners, finer 
clothes and more wholesome food. They also 
persuaded them to forget their cruel gods and 
habits of revenge. They told of the Father in 
Heaven, who loves us all, as his children, and 
forgives us when we repent of our evil doings. 

Now when the chief gnomes and kabouters 
heard of the newcomers in the land, they held a 
meeting and said one to the other: 

“ We shall help all the teachers that are good 
and kind, but we shall plague and punish the 
rough fellows among them.” 

So word was sent to all little people in the 
mines and hills, instructing them how they were 
to act and what they were to do. 

Some of the new teachers, who were foreigners, 
and did not know the customs of the country, 
were very rude and rough. Every day they hurt 
the feelings of the people. With their axes 


8o 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


they cut down the sacred trees. They laughed 
scornfully at the holy wells and springs of 
water. They reviled the people, when they 
prayed to great Woden, with his black ravens 
that told him everything, or to the gentle Freya, 
with her white doves, who helped good girls to 
get kind husbands. They scolded the children 
at play, and this made their fathers and mothers 
feel miserable. This is the reason why so many 
people were angry and sullen, and would not 
listen to the foreign teachers. 

Worse than this, many troubles came to these 
outsiders. Their bread was sour, when they took 
it out of the oven. So was the milk, in their 
pans. Sometimes they found their beds turned 
upside down. Gravel stones rattled down into 
their fireplaces. Their hats and shoes were 
missing. In fact, they had a terrible time gen- 
erally and wanted to go back home. When the 
kabouter has a grudge against any one, he knows 
how to plague him. 

But the teachers that were wise and gentle had 
no trouble. They persuaded the people with 
kind words, and, just as a baby learns to eat 
other food at the table, so the people were weaned 
away from cruel customs and foolish beliefs. 
Many of the land’s folk came to listen to the 
teachers and helped them gladly to build 
churches. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


81 


More wonderful than this, were the good 
things that came to these kind teachers, they 
knew not how. Their bread and milk were al- 
ways sweet and in plenty. They found their 
beds made up and their clothes kept <?lean, gar- 
dens planted with blooming flowers, and much 
hard work done for them. When they would 
build a church in a village, they wondered how 
it was that the wood and the nails, the iron 
necessary to brace the beams, and the copper and 
brass for the sacred vessels, came so easily and 
in plenty. When, on some nights, they won- 
dered where they would get food to eat, they 
found, on waking up in the morning, that there 
was always something good ready for them. 
Thus many houses of worship were built, and the 
more numerous were the churches, the more did 
farms, cows, grain fields, and happy people 
multiply. 

Now when the gnomes and kabouters, who 
like to do work for pleasant people, heard that 
the good teachers wanted church bells, to call 
the people to worship, they resolved to help the 
strangers. They would make not only a bell, or 
a chime, but, actually a carillon, or concert of 
bells to hang up in the air. 

The dark dwarfs did not like to dig metal for 
swords or spears, or what would hurt people; but 
the church bells would guide travellers in the 


82 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


forest, and quiet the storms, that destroyed 
houses and upset boats and killed or drowned 
people, besides inviting the people to come and 
pray and sing. They knew that the good teach- 
ers were poor and could not buy bells in France 
or Italy. Even if they had money, they could 
not get them through the thick forests, or over 
the stormy seas, for they were too heavy. 

When all the kabouters were told of this, they 
came together to work, night and day, in the 
mines. With pick and shovel, crowbar and 
chisel, and hammer and mallet, they broke up the 
rocks containing copper and tin. Then they 
built great roaring fires, to smelt the ore into 
ingots. They would show the teachers that the 
Dutch kabouters could make bells, as well as 
the men in the lands of the South. These dwarf- 
ish people are jealous Gf men and very proud 
of what they can do. 

It was the funniest sight to see these short 
legged fellows, with tiny coats coming just below 
their thighs, and little red caps, looking like a 
stocking and ending in a tassel, on their heads, 
and in shoes that had no laces, but very long 
points. They flew around as lively as monkeys, 
and when the fire was hot they threw off every- 
thing and worked much harder and longer than 
men do. 

Were they like other fairies? Well, hardly. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 83 

One must put away all his usual thoughts, when 
he thinks of kabouters. No filmy wings on their 
backs! No pretty clothes or gauzy garments, 
or stars, or crowns, or wands ! Instead of these 
were hammers, pickaxes, and chisels. But how 
diligent, useful and lively these little folks, in 
plain, coarse coats and with bare legs, were! In 
place of things light, clean and easy, the 
kabouters had furnaces, crucibles and fires of 
coal and wood. 

Sometimes they were grimy, with smoke and 
coal dust, and the sweat ran down their faces and 
bodies. Yet there was always plenty of water 
in the mines, and when hard work was over 
they washed and looked plain but tidy. Besides 
their stores of gold, and silver, and precious 
stones, which they kept ready, to give to good 
people, they had tools with which to tease or 
tantalize cruel, mean or lazy folks. 

Now when the kabouter daddies began the 
roaring fires for the making of the bells, the little 
mothers and the small fry in the kabouter world 
could not afford to be idle. One and all, they 
came down from off the earth, and into the mines 
they went in a crowd. They left off teasing 
milkmaids, tangling skeins of flax, tearing fish- 
ermen’s nets, tying knots in cows’ tails, tumbling 
pots, pans and dishes, in the kitchen, or hiding 
hats, and throwing stones down the chimneys 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


84 

onto the fireplaces. They even ceased their fun 
of mocking children, who were calling the cows 
home, by hiding behind the rocks and shouting 
to them. Instead of these tricks, they saved 
their breath to blow the fires into a blast. 
Everybody wondered where the “ kabs ” were, 
for on the farms and in town nothing happened 
and all was as quiet as when a baby is asleep. 

For days and weeks underground, the dwarfs 
toiled, until their skins, already dark, became as 
sooty as the rafters in the houses of our ancestors. 
Finally, when all the labor was over, the chief 
gnomes were invited down into the mines to in- 
spect the work. 

What a sight! There were at least a hun- 
dred bells, of all sizes, like as in a family; where 
there are daddy, mother, grown ups, young sons 
and daughters, little folk and babies, whether 
single, twins or triplets. Big bells, that could 
scarcely be put inside a hogshead, bells that 
would go into a barrel, bells that filled a bushel, 
and others a peck, stood in rows. From the 
middle, and tapering down the row, were scores 
more, some of them no larger than cow-bells. 
Others, at the end, were so small, that one had to 
think of pint and gill measures. 

Besides all these, there were stacks of iron 
rods and bars, bolts, nuts, screws, and wires and 
yokes on which to hang the bells. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 85 

One party of the strongest of the kabouters 
had been busy in the forest, close to a village, 
where some men, ordered to do so by a foreign 
teacher, had begun to cut down some of the 
finest and most sacred of the grand old trees. 
They had left their tools in the woods; but the 
“ kabs,” at night, seized their axes and before 
morning, without making any noise, they had 
levelled all but the holy trees. Those they 
spared. Then, the timber, all cut and squared, 
ready to hold the bells, was brought to the mouth 
of the mine. 

Now in Dutch, the name for bell is “ klok.” - 
So a wise and gray-bearded gnome was chosen 
by the high sounding title of klokken-spieler, or 
bell player, to test the bells for a carillon. They 
were all hung, for practice, on the big trestles, in 
a long row. Each one of these frames was 
called a “ hang,” for they were just like those 
on which fishermen’s nets were laid to dry and 
be mended. 

So when all were ready, washed, and in their 
clean clothes, every one of the kabouter families, 
daddies, mothers, and young ones, were ranged 
in lines and made to sing. The heavy male 
tenors and baritones, the female sopranos and 
contraltos, the trebles of the little folks, and the 
squeaks of the very small children, down to the 
babies’ cooing, were all heard by the gnomes, 


86 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


who were judges. The high and mighty klok- 
ken-spieler, or master of the carillon, chose those 
voices with best tone and quality, from which 
to set in order and regulate the bells. 

It was pitiful to see how mad and jealous some 
of the kabouters, both male and female, were, 
when they were not appointed to the first row, 
in which were some of the biggest of the males, 
and some of the fattest of the females. Then 
the line tapered off, to forty or fifty young folks, 
including urchins of either sex, down to mere 
babies, that could hardly stand. These had bibs 
on and had to be held up by their fond mothers. 
Each one by itself could squeal and squall, coo 
and crow lustily; but, at a distance, their voices 
blended and the noise they made sounded like a 
tinkle. 

All being ready, the old gnome bit his tuning 
fork, hummed a moment, and then started a 
tune. Along the line, at a signal from the chief 
gnome, they started a tune. 

In the long line, there were, at first, booms and 
peals, twanging and clanging, jangling and 
wrangling, making such a clangor that it sounded 
more like an uproar than an opera. The chief 
gnome was almost discouraged. 

But neither a gnome nor a kabouter ever gives 
up. The master of the choir tried again and 
again. He scolded one old daddy, for singing 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 87 

too low. He frowned at a stalwart young fel- 
low, who tried to drown out all the rest with his 
bull-like bellow. He shook his finger at a 
kabouter girl, that was flirting with a handsome 
lad near her. He cheered up the little folks, 
encouraging them to hold up their voices, until 
finally he had all in order. Then they practiced, 
until the master gnome thought he had his scale 
of notation perfect and gave orders to attune the 
bells. To the delight of all the gnomes, kabout- 
ers and elves, that had been invited to the concert, 
the rows of bells, a hundred or more, from 
boomers to tinklers, made harmony. Strung 
one above the other, they could render merri- 
ment, or sadness, in solos, peals, chimes, cascades 
and carillons, with sweetness and effect. At the 
low notes the babies called out “ cow, cow; ” but 
at the high notes, “ bird, bird.” 

So it happened that, on the very day that the 
bishop had his great church built, with a splendid 
bulb spire on the top, and all nicely furnished * 
within, but without one bell to ring in it, that the 
kabouters planned a great surprise. 

It was night. The bishop was packing his 
saddle bags, ready to take a journey, on horse- 
back, to Rheims. At this city, the great caravans 
from India and China ended, bringing to the 
annual fair, rugs, spices, gems, and things Ori- 
ental, and the merchants of Rheims rolled in 


88 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


gold. Here the bishop would beg the money, 
or ask for a bell, or chimes. 

Suddenly, in the night, while in his own house, 
there rang out music in the air, such as the bishop 
had never heard in Holland, or in any of the 
seventeen provinces of the Netherlands. Not 
even in the old lands, France, or Spain, or Italy, 
where the Christian teachers, builders and sing- 
ers, and the music of the bells had long been 
heard, had such a flood of sweet sounds ever 
fallen on human ears. Here, in these northern 
regions, rang out, not a solo, nor a peal, nor a 
chime, nor even a cascade, from one bell, or from 
many bells; but, a long programme of richest 
music in the air — something which no other 
country, however rich or old, possessed. It was 
a carillon, that is, a continued mass of real music, 
in which whole tunes, songs, and elaborate pieces 
of such length, mass and harmony, as only a choir 
of many voices, a band of music, or an orchestra 
of many performers could produce. 

To get this grand work of hanging in the spire 
done in one night, and before daylight, also, re- 
quired a whole regiment of fairy toilers, who must 
work like bees. For if one ray of sunshine 
struck any one of the kabouters, he was at once 
petrified. The light elves lived in the sunshine 
and thrived on it; but for dark elves, like the 
kabouters, whose home was underground, sun- 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 89 

beams were as poisoned arrows bringing sure 
death ; for by these they were turned into stone. 
Happily the task was finished before the eastern 
sky grew gray, or the cocks crowed. While it 
was yet dark, the music in the air flooded the 
earth. The people in their beds listened with 
rapture. 

“ Laus Deo” (Praise God), devoutly cried 
the surprised bishop. “ It sounds like a choir 
of angels. Surely the cherubim and seraphim 
are here. Now is fulfilled the promise of the 
Psalmist : ‘ The players on instruments shall be 
there.’ ” 

So, from this beginning, so mysterious to the 
rough, unwise and stupid teachers, but, by de- 
grees, clearer to the tactful ones, who were kind 
and patient, the carillons spread over all the 
region between the forests of Ardennes and the 
island in the North Sea. The Netherlands be- 
came the land of melodious symphonies and of 
tinkling bells. No town, however poor, but in 
time had its carillon. Every quarter of an hour, 
the sweet music of hymn or song, made the air 
vocal, while at the striking of the hours, the pious 
bowed their heads and the workmen heard the 
call for rest, or they took cheer, because their 
day’s toil was over. At sunrise, noon, or sunset, 
the Angelus, and at night the curfew sounded 
their calls. 


9 ° 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


It grew into a fashion, that, on stated days, 
great concerts were given, lasting over an hour, 
when the grand works of the masters of music 
were rendered and famous carillon players came 
from all over the Netherlands, to compete for 
prizes. The Low Countries became a famous 
school, in which klokken-spielers (bell players) 
by scores were trained. Thus no kingdom, how- 
ever rich or great, ever equalled the Land of the 
Carillon, in making the air sweet with both 
melody and harmony. 

Nobody ever sees a kabouter nowadays, for in 
the new world, when the woods are nearly all 
cut down, the world made by the steam engine, 
and telegraph, and wireless message, the auto- 
mobile, aeroplane and submarine, cycle and 
under-sea boat, the little folks in the mines and 
forests are forgotten, The chemists, miners, 
engineers and learned men possess the secrets 
which were once those of the fairies only. Yet 
the artists and architects, the clockmakers and 
bell founders, who love beauty, remember what 
their fathers once thought and believed. That 
is the reason why, on many a famous clock, 
either in front of the dial or near the pendulum, 
are figures of the gnomes, who thought, and the 
kabouters who wrought, to make the carillons. 
In Teuton lands, where their cousins are named 
kobolds, and in France where they are called 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 91 

fee, and in England brownies, they have tolling 
and ringing of bells, with peals, chimes and 
cascades of sweet sound; hut the Netherlands, 
still, above all others on earth, is the home of the 
carillon. 


THE WOMAN WITH THREE HUN- 
DRED AND SIXTY-SIX CHILDREN 


ONG, long ago, before the oldest stork 



was young and big deer and little fawns 


* were very many in the Dutch forests, 
there was a pond, famous for its fish, which lay 
in the very heart of Holland, with woods near by. 
Hunters came with their bows and arrows to 
hunt the stags. Or, out of the bright waters, 
boys and men in the sunshine drew out the fish 
with shining scales, or lured the trout, with fly- 
bait, from their hiding places. In those days 
the fish-pond was called the Vijver, and the 
woods where the deer ran, Rensselaer, or the 
Deer’s Lair. 

So, because the forests of oak, and beech, and 
alder trees were so fine, and game on land and in 
water so plentiful, the lord of the country came 
here and built his castle. He made a hedge 
around his estate, so that the people called the 
place the Count’s Hedge; or, as we say, The 
Hague. 

Even to-day, within the beautiful city, the 
forests, with their grand old trees, still remain, 
and the fish-pond, called the Vijver, is there yet, 


92 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


93 


with its swans. On the little island, the fluffy, 
downy cygnets are bom and grow to be big birds, 
with long necks, bent like an arch. In another 
part of the town, also, with their trees for nest- 
ing, and their pond for wading, are children of 
the same storks, whose fathers and mothers lived 
there before America was discovered. 

By and by, many people of rank and fortune 
came to The Hague, for its society. They built 
their grand houses at the slope of the hill, not far 
away from the Yijver, and in time a city grew 
up. 

It was a fine sight to see the lords and ladies 
riding out from the castle into the country. The 
cavalcade was very splendid, when they went 
hawking. There were pretty women on horse- 
back, and gentlemen in velvet clothes, with 
feathers in their hats, and the horses seemed 
proud to bear them. The falconers followed on 
foot, with the hunting birds perched on a hoop, 
which the man inside the circle carried round him. 
Each falcon had on a little cap or hood, which 
was fastened over its head. When this was 
taken off, it flew high up into the air, on its hunt 
for the big and little birds, which it brought 
down for its masters. There were also men with 
dogs, to beat the reeds and bushes, and drive the 
smaller birds from shelter. The huntsmen were 
armed with spears, lest a wild boar, or bear, 


94 DUTCH FAIRY TALES f 

should rush out and attack them. It was always 
a merry day, when a hawking party, in their fine 
clothes and gay trappings, started out. 

There were huts, as well as palaces, and poor 
people, also, at The Hague. Among these, was 
a widow, whose twin babies were left without 
anything to eat — for her husband and their 
father had been killed in the war. Having no 
money to buy a cradle, and her babies being too 
young to be left alone, she put the pair of little 
folks on her back and went out to beg. 

Now there was a fine lady, a Countess, who 
lived with her husband, the Count, near the 
Vijver. She was childless and very jealous of 
other women who were mothers and had children 
playing around them. On this day, when the 
beggar woman, with her two babies on her back, 
came along, the grand lady was in an unusually 
bad temper. For all her pretty clothes, she was 
not a person of fine manners. Indeed, she often 
acted more like a snarling dog, ready to snap 
at any one who should speak to her. Although 
she had cradles and nurses and lovely baby 
clothes all ready, there was no baby. This spoiled 
her disposition, so that her husband and the serv- 
ants could hardly live with her. 

One day, after dinner, when there had been 
everything good to eat and drink on her table, 
and plenty of it, the Countess went out to 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


95 


walk in front of her house. It was the third 
day of January, but the weather was mild. 
The beggar woman, with her two babies on 
her back and their arms round her neck, cry- 
ing with hunger, came trudging along. She 
went into the garden and asked the Countess 
for food or an alms. She expected surely, at 
least a slice of bread, a cup of milk, or a small 
coin. 

But the Countess was rude to her and denied 
her both food and money. She even burst into a 
bad temper, and reviled the woman for having 
two children, instead of one. 

“ Where did you get those brats? They are 
not yours. You just brought them here to play 
on my feelings and excite my jealousy. Be- 
gone ! ” 

But the poor woman kept her temper. She 
begged piteously and said: “ For the love of 
Heaven, feed my babies, even if you will not feed 
me.” 

“No! they are not yours. You’re a cheat,” 
said the fine lady, nursing her rage. 

“ Indeed, Madame, they are both my children 
and born on one day. They have one father, but 
he is dead. He was killed in the war, while serv- 
ing his grace, your husband.” 

“ Don’t tell me such a story,” snapped back 
the Countess, now in a fury. “ I don’t believe 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


96 

that any one, man or woman, could have two 
children at once. Away with you,” and she 
seized a stick to drive off the poor woman. 

Now, it was the turn of the beggar to answer 
back. Both had lost their temper, and the two 
angry women seemed more like she-bears robbed 
of their whelps. 

“ Heaven punish you, you wicked, cruel, cold- 
hearted woman,” cried the mother. Her two 
babies were almost choking her in their eagerness 
for food. Yet their cries never moved the rich 
lady, who had bread and good things to spare, 
while their poor parent had not a drop of milk 
to give them. The Countess now called her 
men-servants to drive the beggar away. This 
they did, most brutally. They pushed the poor 
woman outside the garden gate and closed it 
behind her. As she turned away, the poor 
mother, taking each of her children by its back, 
one in each hand, held them up before the grand 
lady and cried out loudly, so that all heard her: 

“ May you have as many children as there are 
days in the year.” 

Now with all her wrath burning in her breast, 
what the beggar woman really meant was this: 
It was the third of January, and so there were 
but three days in the year, so far. She intended 
to say that, instead of having to care for two 
children, the Countess might have the trouble 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


97 

of rearing three, and all born on the same 
day. 

But the fine lady, in her mansion, cared noth- 
ing for the beggar woman’s words. Why should 
she? She had her lordly husband, who was a 
count, and he owned thousands of acres. Be- 
sides, she possessed vast riches. In her great 
house, were ten men-servants and thirty-one 
maid-servants, together with her rich furniture, 
and fine clothes and jewels. The lofty brick 
church, to which she went on Sundays, was hung 
with the coats of arms of her famous ancestors. 
The stone floor, with its great slabs, was so 
grandly carved with the crests and heraldry of 
her family, that to walk over these was like climb- 
ing a mountain, or tramping across a ploughed 
field. Common folks had to be careful, lest they 
should stumble over the bosses and knobs of the 
carved tombs. A long train of her servants, and 
tenants on the farms followed her, when she 
went to worship. Inside the church, the lord 
and lady sat, in high seats, on velvet cushions 
and under a canopy. 

By the time summer had come, according to 
the fashion in all good Dutch families, all sorts 
of pretty baby clothes were made ready. There 
were soft, warm, swaddling bands, tiny socks, 
and long white linen dresses. A bajrtismal 
blanket, covered with silk, was made for the 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


98 

christening, and daintily embroidered. Plenty 
of lace, and pink and blue ribbons — pink for a 
girl and blue for a boy — were kept at hand. 
And, because there might be twins, a double set 
of garments was provided, besides baby bath- 
tubs and all sorts of nice things for the little 
stranger or strangers — whether one or two — to 
come. Even the names were chosen — one for a 
boy and the other for a girl. Would it be Wil- 
helm or Wilhelmina? 

It was real fun to think over the names, but 
it was hard to choose out of so many. At last, 
the Countess crossed off all but forty-six; or the 
following; nearly every girl’s name ending in je, 
as in our “ Polly,” “ Sallie.” 


Girls 


Boys 


Magtel 

Catharyna 

Gerrit 

Gysbert 

Nelletje 

Alida 

Cornelis 

Jansze 

Zelia 

Annatje 

Volkert 

Myndert 

Jannetje 

Christina 

Kilian 

Adrian 

Zara 

Katrina 

Johannes 

Joachim 

Marytje 

Bethje 

Petrus 

Arendt 

Willemtje 

Eva 

Barent 

Dirck 

Geertruy 

Dirkje 

Wessel 

Nikolaas 

Petronella 

May ken 

Hendrik 

Staats 

Margrieta 

Hilleke 

Teunis 

Gozen 

Josina 

Bethy 

Wouter 

Japik 

Willemtje 

Evert 


But before the sun set on the expected day, it 
was neither one boy nor one girl, nor both; nor 
were all the forty-six names chosen sufficient; 
for the beggar woman’s wish had come true, in 


■ DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


99 


a way not expected. There were as many as, 
and no fewer children than, there were days in 
the year; and, since this was leap year, there 
were three hundred and sixty-six little folks in 
the house ; so that other names, besides the forty- 
six, had to be used. 

Yet none of these wee creatures was bigger 
than a mouse. Beginning at daylight, one after 
another appeared — first a girl and then a boy; 
so that after the forty-eighth, the nurse was at 
her wit’s end, to give them names. It was not 
possible to keep the little babies apart. The 
thirty-one servant maids of the mansion were all 
called in to hell) in sorting out the girls from the 
boys; but soon it seemed hopeless to try to pick 
out Peter from Henry, or Catalina from An- 
net je. After an hour or two spent at the task, 
and others coming along, the women found that 
it was useless to try any longer. It was found 
that little Piet, Jan and Klaas, Hank, Douw and 
Japik, among the boys; and Molly, Mayka, 
Lena, Elsje, Anjte and Marie were getting all 
mixed up. So they gave up the attempt in 
despair. Besides, the supply of pink and blue 
ribbons had given out long before, after the 
first dozen or so were born. As for the, baby 
clothes made ready, they were of no use, for all 
the garments were too big. In one of the long 
dresses, tied up like a bag, one might possibly. 


lOO 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


with stuffing, have put the whole family of three 
hundred and sixty-six brothers and sisters. 

It was not likely such small fry of human 
beings could live long. So, the good Bishop 
Guy, of Utrecht, when he heard that the beggar 
woman’s curse had come true, in so unexpected 
a manner, ordered that the babies should be all 
baptized at once. The Count, who was strict 
in his ideas of both custom and church law, in- 
sisted on it too. 

So nothing would do but to carry the tiny 
infants to church. How to get them there, was 
a question. The whole house had been rum- 
maged to provide things to carry the little folks 
in: but the supply of trays, and mince pie dishes, 
and crocks, was exhausted at the three hundred 
and sixtieth baby. So there was left only a 
Turk’s Head, or round glazed earthen dish, 
fluted and curved, which looked like the turban 
of a Turk. Hence its name. Into this, the 
last batch of babies, or extra six girls, were 
stowed. Curiously enough, number 366 was 
an inch taller than the others. To thirty house 
maids was given a tray, for each was to carry 
twelve mannikins, and one the last six, in the 
Turk’s Head. Instead of rich silk blankets a 
wooden tray, and no clothes on, must suffice. 

In the Groote Iverk, or Great Church, the 
Bishop was waiting, with his assistants, holding 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


101 


brass basins full of holy water, for the christen- 
ing. All the town, including the dogs, were out 
to see what was going on. Many boys and girls 
climbed up on the roofs of the one-story houses, 
or in the trees to get a better view of the curious 
procession — the like of which had never been seen 
in The Hague before. Neither has anything like 
it ever been seen since. 

So the parade began. First went the Count, 
with his captains and the trumpeters, blowing 
their trumpets. These were followed by the 
men-servants, all dressed in their best Sunday 
clothes, who had the crest and arms of their 
master, the Count, on their backs and breasts. 
Then came on the company of thirty-one maids, 
each one carrying a tray, on which were twelve 
mannikins, or minikins. Twenty of these trays 
were round and made of wood, lined with velvet, 
smooth and soft; but ten were of earthenware, 
oblong in shape, like a manger. In these, every 
year, were baked the Christmas pies. 

At first, all went on finely, for the outdoor air 
seemed to put the babies asleep and there was no 
crying. But no sooner were they inside the 
church, than about two hundred of the brats be- 
gan wailing and whimpering. Pretty soon, they 
set up such a squall that the Count felt ashamed 
of his progeny and the Bishop looked very un- 
happy. To make matters worse, one of the 


102 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


maids, although warned of the danger, stumbled 
over the helmet of an old crusader, carved in 
stone, that rose some six inches or so above the 
floor. In a moment, she fell and lay sprawling, 
spilling out at least a dozen babies. “ Heilige 
Maybe” (Holy Mary!), she cried, as she rolled 
over. “ Have I killed them? ” 

Happily the wee ones were thrown against 
the long-trained gown of an old lady walking 
directly in front of her, so that they were unhurt. 
They were easily picked up and laid on the tray 
again, and once more the line started. 

Happily the Bishop had been notified that he 
would not have to call out the names of all the 
infants, that is, three hundred and sixty-six; for 
this would have kept him at the solemn business 
all day long. It had been arranged that, in- 
stead of any on the list of the chosen forty-six, 
to be so named, all the boys should be called 
John, and all the girls Elizabeth; or, in Dutch, 
Jan and Lisbet, or Lizbethje. Yet even to say 
“John” one hundred and eighty times, and 
“ Lisbet ” one hundred and eighty-six times, 
nearly tired the old gentleman to death, for he 
was fat and slow. 

So, after the first six trays full of wee folks 
had been sprinkled, one at a time, the Bishop 
decided to “ asperse ” them, that is, shake, from 
a mop or brush, the holy water, on a tray full of 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


103 


babies at one time. So He called for the 
“ aspersorium.” Then, dipping this in the basin 
of holy water, he scattered the drops over the wee 
folk, until all, even the six extra girl babies in 
the Turk’s Head, were sprinkled. Probably, 
because the Bishop thought a Turk was next door 
to a heathen, he dropped more water than usual 
on these last six, until the young ones squealed 
lustily with the cold. It was noted, on the con- 
trary, that the little folks in the mince pie dishes 
were gently handled, as if the good man had 
visions of Christmas coming and the good things 
on the table. 

Yet it was evident that such tiny people could 
not bear what healthy babies of full size would 
think nothing of. Whether it was because of 
the damp weather, or the cold air in the brick 
church, or too much excitement, or because there 
were not three hundred and sixty-six nurses, or 
milk bottles ready, it came to pass that every one 
of the wee creatures died when the sun went 
down. 

Just where they were buried is not told, but, 
for hundreds of years, there was, in one of The 
Hague churches, a monument in honor of these 
little folks, who lived but a day. It was graven 
with portraits in stone of the Count and Countess 
and told of their children, as many as the days of 
the year. Near by, were hung up the two basins. 


104 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

in which the holy water, used by the Bishop, in 
sprinkling the babies, was held. The year, 
month and day of the wonderful event were also 
engraved. Many and many people from various 
lands came to visit the tomb. The guide books 
spoke of it, and tender women wept, as they 
thought how three hundred and sixty-six little 
cradles, in the Count’s castle, would have looked, 
had each baby lived. 


THE ONI ON HIS TRAVELS 



CROSS the ocean, in Japan, there once 


lived curious creatures called Onis. 


Every Japanese boy and girl has heard 
of them, though one has not often been caught. 
In one museum, visitors could see the hairy leg 
of a specimen. Falling out of the air in a 
storm, the imp had lost his limb. It had been 
torn off by being caught in the timber side of a 
well curb. The story-teller was earnestly as- 
sured by one Japanese lad that his grandfather 
had seen it tumble from the clouds. 

Many people are sure that the Onis live in the 
clouds and occasionally fall off, during a peal 
of thunder. Then they escape and hide down 
in a well. Or, they get loose in the kitchen, 
rattle the dishes around, and make a great racket. 
They behave like cats, with a dog after them. 
They do a great deal of mischief, but not much 
harm. There are even some old folks who say 
that, after all, Onis are only unruly children, 
that behave like angels in the morning and act 
like imps in the afternoon. So we see that not 
much is known about the Onis. 

Many things that go wrong are blamed on the 


105 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


106 

Onis. Foolish folks, such as stupid maid-serv- 
ants, and dull-witted fellows, that blunder a good 
deal, declare that the Onis made them do it. 
Drunken men, especially, that stumble into mud- 
holes at night, say the Onis pushed them in. 
Naughty boys that steal cake, and girls that take 
sugar, often tell fibs to their parents, charging 
it on the Onis. 

The Onis love to play jokes on people, but 
they are not dangerous. There are plenty of 
pictures of them in Japan, though they never 
sat for their portraits, but this is the way they 
looked. 

Some Onis have only one eye in their forehead, 
others two, and, once in a while, a big fellow has 
three. There are little, short horns on their 
heads, but these are no bigger than those on a 
baby deer and never grow long. The hair on 
their heads gets all snarled up, just like a little 
girl’s that cries when her tangled tresses are 
combed out; for the Onis make use of neither 
brushes nor looking glasses. As for their faces, 
they never wash them, so they look sooty. Their 
skin is rough, like an elephant’s. On each of 
their feet are only three toes. Whether an Oni 
has a nose, or a snout, is not agreed upon by the 
learned men who have studied them. 

No one ever heard of an Oni being higher 
than a yardstick, but they are so strong that one 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


107 

of them can easily lift two bushel bags of rice at 
once. In Japan, they steal the food offered to 
the idols. They can live without air. They like 
nothing better than to drink both the rice spirit 
called sake, and the black liquid called soy, of 
which only a few drops, as a sauce on fish, are 
enough for a man. Of this sauce, the Dutch, as 
well as the Japanese, are very fond. 

Above all things else, the most fun for a young 
Oni is to get into a crockery shop. Once there, 
he jumps round among the cups and dishes, 
hides in the jars, straddles the shelves and turns 
somersaults over the counter. In fact, the Oni 
is only a jolly little imp. The Japanese girls, 
on New Year’s eve, throw handfuls of dried 
beans in every room of the house and cry, “In, 
with good luck; and out with you, Onis! ” Yet 
they laugh merrily all the time. The Onis can- 
not speak, but they can chatter like monkeys. 
They often seem to be talking to each other in 
gibberish. 

Now it once happened in Japan that the great 
Tycoon of the country wanted to make a present 
to the Prince of the Dutch. So he sent all over 
the land, from the sweet potato fields in the 
south to the seal and salmon waters in the north, 
to get curiosities of all sorts. The products of 
Japan, from the warm parts, where grow the 
indigo and the sugar cane, to the cold regions, 


4 . 


io8 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


in which are the bear and walrus, were sent as 
gifts to go to the Land of Dykes and Windmills. 
The Japanese had heard that the Dutch people 
like cheese, walk in wooden shoes, eat with forks, 
instead of chopsticks, and the women wear 
twenty petticoats apiece, while the men sport 
jackets with two gold buttons, and folks gen- 
erally do things the other way from that which 
was common in Japan. 

Now it chanced that while they were packing 
the things that were piled up in the palace at 
Yedo, a young Oni, with his horns only half 
grown, crawled into the kitchen, at night, through 
the big bamboo water pipe near the pump. 
Pretty soon he jumped into the storeroom. 
There, the precious cups, vases, lacquer boxes, 
pearl-inlaid pill-holders, writing desks, jars of 
tea, and bales of silk, were lying about, ready 
to be put into their cases. The yellow wrappings 
for covering the pretty things of gold and silver, 
bronze and wood, and the rice chaff, for the pack- 
ing of the porcelain, were all at hand. What a 
jolly time the Oni did have, in tumbling them 
about and rolling over them! Then he leaped 
like a monkey from one vase to another. He 
put on a lady’s gay silk kimono and wrapped 
himself around with golden embroidery. Then 
he danced and played the game of the Ka-gu'-ra, 
or Lion of Korea, pretending to make love to a 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


109 

girl-Oni. Such funny capers as he did cut! It 
would have made a cat laugh to see him. It 
was broad daylight, before his pranks were over, 
and the Dutch church chimes were playing the 
hour of seven. 

Suddenly the sound of keys in the lock told 
him that, in less than a minute, the door would 
open. 

Where should he hide? There was no time to 
be lost. So he seized some bottles of soy from 
the kitchen shelf and then jumped into the big 
bottom drawer of a ladies’ cabinet, and pulled it 
shut. 

“ Namu Amida” (Holy Buddha!), cried the 
man that opened the door. “ Who has been 
here? It looks like a rat’.s picnic.” 

However, the workmen soon came and set 
everything to rights. Then they packed up the 
pretty things. They hammered down the box 
lids and before night the Japanese curiosities 
were all stored in the hold of a swift, Dutch ship, 
from Nagasaki, bound for Rotterdam. After a 
long voyage, the vessel arrived safely in good 
season, and the boxes were sent on to The Hague, 
or capital city. As the presents were for the 
Prince, they were taken at once to the pretty 
palace, called the House in the Wood. There 
they were unpacked and set on exhibition for the 
Prince and Princess to see the next day. 


no 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


When the palace maid came in next morning 
to clean up the floor and dust the various 
articles, her curiosity led her to pull open the 
drawer of the ladies’ cabinet; when out jumped 
something hairy. It nearly frightened the girl 
out of her wits. It was the Oni, which rushed 
off and down stairs, tumbling over a half dozen 
servants, who were sitting at their breakfast. 
All started to run except the brave butler, who 
caught up a carving knife and showed fight. 
Seeing this, the Oni ran down into the cellar, 
hoping to find some hole or crevice for escape. 
All around, were shelves filled with cheeses, jars 
of sour-krout, pickled herring, and stacks of 
fresh rye bread standing in the corners. But 
oh! how they did smell in his Japanese nostrils! 
Oni, as he was, he nearly fainted, for no such 
odors had ever beaten upon his nose, when in 
Japan. Even at the risk of being carved into 
bits, he must go back. So up into the kitchen 
again he ran. Happily, the door into the garden 
stood wide open. 

Grabbing a fresh bottle of soy from the 
kitchen shelf, the Oni, with a hop, skip and jump, 
reached outdoors. Seeing a pair of klomps, or 
wooden shoes, near the steps, the Oni put his 
pair of three toes into them, to keep the dogs 
from scenting its tracks. Then he ran into the 
fields, hiding among the cows, until he heard 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


in 


men with pitchforks coming. At once the Oni 
leaped upon a cow’s back and held on to its 
horns, while the poor animal ran for its life into 
its stall, in the cow stable, hoping to brush the 
monster off. 

The dairy farmer’s wife was at that moment 
pulling open her bureau drawer, to put on a new 
clean lace cap. Hearing her favorite cow moo 
and bellow, she left the drawer open and ran to 
look through the pane of glass in the kitchen. 
Through this, she could peep, at any minute, to 
see whether this or that cow, or its calf, was sick 
or well. 

Meanwhile, at the House in the Wood, the 
Princess, hearing the maid scream and the serv- 
ants in an uproar, rushed out in her embroidered 
white nightie, to ask who, and what, and why, 
and wherefore. All different and very funny 
were the answers of maid, butler, cook, valet and 
boots. 

The first maid, who had pulled open the 
drawer and let the Oni get out, held up broom 
and duster, as if to take oath. She declared: 

“ It was a monkey, or baboon; but he seemed 
to talk — Russian, I think.” 

“ No,” said the butler. “ I heard the crea- 
ture — a black ram, running on its hind legs ; but 
its language was German, I’m sure.” 

The cook, a fat Dutch woman, told a long 


112 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


story. She declared, on honor, that it was a 
black dog like a Chinese pug, that has no hair. 
However, she had only seen its back, but she 
was positive the creature talked English, for she 
heard it say “ soy.” 

The valet honestly avowed that he was too 
scared to be certain of anything, but was ready 
to swear that to his ears the tvords uttered seemed 
to be Swedish. He had once heard sailors from 
Sweden talking, and the chatter sounded like 
their lingo. 

Then there was Boots, the errand boy, who be- 
lieved that it was the Devil; but, whatever or 
whoever it was, he was ready to bet a week’s 
wages that its lingo was all in French. 

Now when the Princess found that not one of 
her servants could speak or understand any 
language but their own, she scolded them 
roundly in Dutch, and wound up by say- 
ing, “ You’re a lot of cheese-heads, all of 
you.” 

Then she arranged the wonderful things from 
the Far East, with her own dainty hands, until 
the House in the Wood was fragrant with 
Oriental odors, and soon it became famous 
throughout all Europe. Even when her grand- 
children played with the pretty toys from the 
land of Fuji and flowers, of silk and tea, cherry 
blossoms and camphor trees, it was not only the 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


n 3 

first but the finest Japanese collection in all 
Europe. 

Meanwhile, the Oni, in a strange land, got 
into one trouble after another. In rushed men 
with clubs, but as an Oni was well used to seeing 
these at home, he was not afraid. He could out- 
run, out jump, or outclimb any man, easily. The 
farmer’s vrouw (wife) nearly fainted when the 
Oni leaped first into her room and then into her 
bureau drawer. As he did so, the bottle of soy, 
held in his three-fingered paw, hit the wood and 
the dark liquid, as black as tar, ran all over the 
nicely starched laces, collars and nightcaps. 
Every bit of her quilled and crimped hear-gear 
and neckwear, once as white as snow, was 
ruined. 

“Donder en Bliksem” (thunder and light- 
ning) , cried the vrouw. “ There’s my best cap, 
that cost twenty guilders, utterly ruined.” Then 
she bravely ran for the broomstick. 

The Oni caught sight of what he thought was 
a big hole in the wall and ran into it. Seeing the 
blue sky above, he began to climb up. Now 
there were no chimneys in J apan and he did not 
know what this was. The soot nearly blinded 
and choked him. So he slid down and rushed 
out, only to have his head nearly cracked by the 
farmer’s wife, who gave him a whack of her 
broomstick. She thought it was a crazy goat 


n 4 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


that she was fighting. She first drove the Oni 
into the cellar and then bolted the door. 

An hour later, the farmer got a gun and 
loaded it. Then, with his hired man he came 
near, one to pull open the door, and the other to 
shoot. What they expected to find Avas a mon- 
ster. 

But no! So much experience, even within an 
hour, of things unknown in Japan, including 
chimneys, had been too severe for the poor, 
lonely, homesick Oni. There it lay dead on the 
floor, with its three fingers held tightly to its 
snout and closing it. So much cheese, zuur kool 
(sour krout), gin (schnapps), advocaat (brandy 
and eggs), cows’ milk, both sour and fresh, 
wooden shoes, lace collars and crimped neck- 
wear, with the various smells, had turned both 
the Oni’s head and his stomach. The very sight 
of these strange things being so unusual, gave 
the Oni first fright, and then a nervous attack, 
while the odors, such as had never tortured his 
nose before, had finished him. 

The wise men of the village were called to- 
gether to hold an inquest. After summoning 
witnesses, and cross-examining them and study- 
ing the strange creature, their verdict was that it 
could be nothing less than a Hersen Schim, that 
is, a spectre of the brain. They meant by this 
that there was no such animal. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


However, a man from Delft, who followed 
the business of a knickerbocker, or baker of 
knickers, or clay marles, begged the body of the 
Oni. He wanted it to serve as a model for a 
new gargoyle, or rain spout, for the roof of 
churches. Carved in stone, or baked in clay, 
which turns red and is called terra cotta, the new 
style of monster became very popular. The 
knickerbocker named it after a new devil, that 
had been expelled by the prayers of the saints, 
and speedily made a fortune, by selling it to stone 
cutters and architects. So for one real Oni, that 
died and was buried in Dutch soil, there are 
thousands of imaginary ones, made of baked clay, 
or stone, in the Dutch land, where things, more 
funny than in fairy-land, constantly take place. 

The dead Japanese Oni serving as a model, 
which was made into a water gutter, served more 
useful purposes, for a thousand years, than 
ever he had done, in the land where his relations 
still live and play their pranks. 


THE LEGEND OF THE WOODEN 
SHOE 

I N years long gone, too many for the almanac 
to tell of, or for clocks and watches to 
measure, millions of good fairies came down 
from the sun and went into the earth. There, 
they changed themselves into roots and leaves, 
and became trees. There were many kinds of 
these, as they covered the earth, but the pine and 
birch, ash and oak, were the chief ones that made 
Holland. The fairies that lived in the trees 
bore the name of Moss Maidens, or Tree 
“ Trintjes,” which is the Dutch pet name for 
Kate, or Katharine. 

The oak was the favorite tree, for people lived 
then on acorns, which they ate roasted, boiled or 
mashed, or made into meal, from which some- 
thing like bread was kneaded and baked. With 
oak bark, men tanned hides and made leather, 
and, from its timber, boats and houses. Under 
its branches, near the trunk, people laid their 
sick, hoping for help from the gods. Beneath 
the oak boughs, also, warriors took oaths to be 
faithful to their lords, women made promises, or 
wives joined hand in hand around its girth, hop- 
116 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


117 


in g to have beautiful children. Up among 
its leafy branches the new babies lay, before they 
were found in the cradle by the other children. 
To make a young child grow np to be strong 
and healthy, mothers drew them through a split 
sapling or young tree. Even more wonderful, 
as medicine for the country itself, the oak had 
power to heal. The new land sometimes suffered 
from disease called the val (or fall) . When sick 
with the val , the ground sunk. Then people, 
houses, churches, barns and cattle all went down, 
out of sight, and were lost forever, in a flood of 
water. 

But the oak, with its mighty roots, held the 
soil firm. Stories of dead cities, that had tumbled 
beneath the waves, and of the famous Forest of 
Reeds, covering a hundred villages, which dis- 
appeared in one night, were known only too well. 

Under the birch tree, lovers met to plight 
their vows, and on its smooth bark was often cut 
the figure of two hearts joined in one. In sum- 
mer, the forest furnished shade, and in winter 
warmth from the fire. In the spring time, the 
new leaves were a wonder, and in autumn the 
pigs grew fat on the mast, or the acorns, that 
had dropped on the ground. 

So, for thousands of years, when men made 
their home in the forest, and wanted nothing 
else, the trees were sacred. 


n8 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

But by and by, when cows came into the land 
and sheep and horses multiplied, more open 
ground was needed for pasture, grain fields and 
meadows. Fruit trees, bearing apples and pears, 
peaches and cherries, were planted, and grass, 
wheat, rye and barley were grown. Then, in- 
stead of the dark woods, men liked to have their 
gardens and orchards open to the sunlight. Still, 
the people were very rude, and all they had on 
their bare feet were rough bits of hard leather, 
tied on through their toes; though most of them 
went barefooted. 

The forests had to be cut down. Men were 
so busy with the axe, that in a few years, the 
Wood Land was gone. Then the new “ Hol- 
land,” with its people and red roofed houses, 
^ with its chimneys and windmills, and dykes and 
storks, took the place of the old Holt Land of 
many trees. 

Now there was a good man, a carpenter and 
very skilful with his tools, who so loved the oak 
that he gave himself, and his children after him, 
the name of Eyck, which is pronounced Ike, and 
is Dutch for oak. When, before his neighbors 
and friends, according to the beautiful Dutch 
custom, he called his youngest born child, to lay 
the corner-stone of his new house, he bestowed 
upon her, before them all, the name of Neeltje 
(or Nellie) Van Eyck. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


119 

The carpenter daddy continued to mourn 
over the loss of the forests. He even shed tears, 
fearing lest, by and by, there should not one 
oak tree be left in the country. Moreover, he 
was frightened at the thought that the new land, 
made by pushing back the ocean and building 
dykes, might sink down again and go back to the 
fishes. In such a case, all the people, the babies 
and their mothers, men, women, horses and 
cattle, would be drowned. The Dutch folks 
were a little too fast, he thought, in winning their 
acres from the sea. 

One day, while sitting on his door-step, brood- 
ing sorrowfully, a Moss Maiden and a Tree Elf 
appeared, skipping along, hand in hand. They 
came up to him and told him that his ancestral 
oak had a message for him. Then they laughed 
and ran away. Van Eyck, which was now the 
man’s full family name, went into the forest and 
stood under the grand old oak tree, which his 
fathers loved, and which he would allow none to 
cut down. 

Looking up, the leaves of the tree rustled, 
and one big branch seemed to sweep near him. 
Then it whispered in his ear: 

“ Do not mourn, for your descendants, even 
many generations hence, shall see greater things 
than you have witnessed. I and my fellow oak 
trees shall pass away, but the sunshine shall be 


120 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


spread over the land and make it dry. Then, 
instead of its falling down, like acorns from the 
trees, more and better food shall come up from 
out of the earth. Where green fields now 
spread, and the cities grow where forests were, 
we shall come to life again, but in another form. 
When most needed, we shall furnish you and 
your children and children’s children, with 
warmth, comfort, fire, light, and wealth. Nor 
need you fear for the land, that it will fall; for, 
even while living, we, and all the oak trees that 
are left, and all the birch, beech, and pine trees 
shall stand on our heads for you. We shall hold 
up your houses, lest they fall into the ooze and 
you shall walk and run over our heads. As truly 
as when rooted in the soil, will we do this. Be- 
lieve what we tell you, and be happy. We shall 
turn ourselves upside down for you.” 

“ I cannot see how all these things can be,” 
said Van Eyck. 

“ Fear not, my promise will endure.” 

The leaves of the branch rustled for another 
moment. Then, all was still, until the Moss 
Maiden and Trintje, the Tree Elf, again, hand 
in hand, as they tripped along merrily, appeared 
to him. 

“We shall help you and get our friends, the 
elves, to do the same. Now, do you take some 
oak wood and saw off two pieces, each a foot 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


121 


long. See that they are well dried. Then set 
them on the kitchen table to-night, when you go 
to bed.” After saying this, and looking at each 
other and laughing, just as girls do, they dis- 
appeared. 

Pondering on what all this might mean, Van 
Eyck went to his wood-shed and sawed off the 
oak timber. At night, after his wife had cleared 
off the supper table, he laid the foot-long pieces 
in their place. 

When Van Eyck woke up in the morning, he 
recalled his dream, and, before he was dressed, 
hurried to the kitchen. There, on the table, lay 
a pair of neatly made wooden shoes. Not a sign 
of tools, or shavings could be seen, but the clean 
wood and pleasant odor made him glad. When 
he glanced again at the wooden shoes, he found 
them perfectly smooth, both inside and out. 
They had heels at the bottom and were nicely 
pointed at the toes, and, altogether, were very 
inviting to the foot. He tried them on, and 
found that they fitted him exactly. He tried to 
walk on the kitchen floor, which his wife kept 
scrubbed and polished, and then sprinkled with 
clean white sand, with broomstick ripples 
scored in the layers, but for Van Eyck it was 
like walking on ice. After slipping and balanc- 
ing himself, as if on a tight rope, and nearly 
breaking his nose against the wall, he took off the 


122 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


wooden shoes, and kept them off, while inside 
the house. However, when he went outdoors, 
he found his new shoes very light, pleasant to 
the feet and easy to walk in. It was not so 
much like trying to skate, as it had been in the 
kitchen. 

At night, in his dreams, he saw two elves come 
through the window into the kitchen. One, a 
kabouter, dark and ugly, had a box of tools. The 
other, a light-faced elf, seemed to be the guide. 
The kabouter at once got out his saw, hatchet, 
auger, long, chisel-like knife, and smoothing 
plane. At first, the two elves seemed to be 
quarrelling, as to who should be boss. Then 
they settled down quietly to work. The kabouter 
took the wood and shaped it on the outside. Then 
he hollowed out, from inside of it, a pair of shoes, 
which the elf smoothed and polished. Then one 
elf put his little feet in them and tried to dance, 
but he only slipped on the smooth floor and 
flattened his nose ; but the other fellow pulled the 
nose straight again, so it was all right. They 
waltzed together upon the wooden shoes, then 
took them off, jumped out the window, and ran 
away. 

When Van Eyck put the wooden shoes on, he 
found that out in the fields, in the mud, and on 
the soft soil, and in sloppy places, this sort of foot 
gear was just the thing. They did not sink in 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


12 3 


the mud and the man’s feet were comfortable, 
even after hours of labor. They did not “ draw ” 
his feet, and they kept out the water far better 
than leather possibly could. 

When the Van Eyck vrouw and the children 
saw how happy Daddy was, they each one wanted 
a pair. Then they asked him what he called 
them. 

“ Klompen,” said he, in good Dutch, and 
klompen, or klomps, they are to this day. 

“ I’ll make a fortune out of this,” said Van 
Eyck. “I’ll set up a klomp-winkel (shop for- 
wooden shoes) at once.” 

So, going out to the blacksmith’s shop, in the 
village, he had the man who pounded iron fashion 
for him on his anvil, a set of tools, exactly like 
those used by the kabouter and the elf, which he 
had seen in his dream. Then he hung out a 
sign, marked “ Wooden blocks for shoes.” He 
made klomps for the little folks just out of the 
nursery, for boys and girls, for grown men and 
women, and for all who walked out-of-doors, in 
the street or on the fields. 

Soon klomps came to be the fashion in all the 
country places. It was good manners, when 
you went into a house, to take off your wooden 
shoes and leave them at the door. Even in the 
towns and cities, ladies wore wooden slippers, es- 
pecially when walking or working in the garden. 


124 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Ivlomps also set the fashion for soft, warm 
socks, and stockings made from sheep’s wool. 
Soon, a thousand needles were clicking, to put a 
soft cushion between one’s soles and toes and the 
wood. Women knitted, even while they walked 
to market, or gossiped on the streets. The 
klomp-winkels, or shops of the shoe carpenters, 
were seen in every village. 

When rich beyond his day-dreams, Van Eyck 
had another joyful night vision. The next day, 
he wore a smiling countenance. Everybody, who 
met him on the street, saluted him and asked, in 
a neighborly way: 

“ Good-morning, Mynheer Bly-moe-dig (Mr. 
Cheerful). How do you sail to-day? ” 

That’s the way the Dutch talk — not “ how do 
you do,” but, in their watery country, it is this, 
“ How do you sail? ” or else, “ Hoe gat het u al? ” 
(How goes it with you, already?) 

Then Van Eyck told his dream. It was this: 
The Moss Maiden and Trintje, the wood elf, 
came to him again at night and danced. They 
were lively and happy. 

“ What now? ” asked the dreamer, smilingly, 
of his two visitors. 

He had hardly got the question out of his 
mouth, when in walked a kabouter, all smutty 
with blacksmith work. In one hand, he grasped 
his tool box. In the other, he held a curious 



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DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


12 5 


looking machine. It was a big lump of iron, set 
in a frame, with ropes to pull it up and let it fall 
down with a thump. 

“ What is it? ” asked Van Eyck. 

“It’s a Hey” (a pile driver), said the ka- 
bouter, showing him how to use it. “ When men 
say to you, on the street, to-morrow, 4 How do 
you sail? ’ laugh at them,” said the Moss Maiden, 
herself laughing. 

“ Yes, and now you can tell the people how to 
build cities, with mighty churches with lofty 
towers, and with high houses like those in other 
lands. Take the trees, trim the branches off, 
sharpen the tops, turn them upside down and 
pound them deep in the ground. Did not the 
ancient oak jmomise that the trees would be 
turned upside down for you? Did they not say 
you could walk on top of them? ” 

By this time, Van Eyck had asked so many 
questions, and kept the elves so long, that the 
Moss Maiden peeped anxiously through the 
window. Seeing the day breaking, she and 
Trintje and the kabouter flew away, so as not 
to be petrified by the sunrise. 

“ I’ll make another fortune out of this, also,” 
said the happy man, who, next morning, was 
saluted as Mynheer Blyd-schap (Mr. Joyful). 

At once, Van Eyck set up a factory for mak- 
ing pile drivers. Sending men into the woods, 


126 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


who chose the tall, straight trees, he had their 
branches cut off. Then he sharpened the trunks 
at one end, and these were driven, by the pile 
driver, down, far and deep, into the ground. So 
a foundation, as good as stone, was made in the 
soft and spongy soil, and well built houses up- 
rose by the thousands. Even the lofty walls of 
churches stood firm. The spires were unshaken 
in the storm. 

Old Holland had not fertile soil like France, 
or vast flocks of sheep, producing wool, like Eng- 
land, or armies of weavers, as in the Belgic lands. 
Yet, soon there rose large cities, with splendid 
mansions and town halls. As high towards 
heaven as the cathedrals and towers in other 
lands, which had rock for foundation, her brick 
churches rose in the air. On top of the forest 
trees, driven deep into the sand and clay, dams 
and dykes were built, that kept out the ocean. 
So, instead of the old two thousand square 
miles, there were, in the realm, in the course of 
years, twelve thousand, rich in green fields and 
cattle. Then, for all the boys and girls that 
travel in this land of quaint customs, Holland 
was a delight. 


THE CURLY-TAILED LION 


O NCE upon a time, some Dutch hunters 
went to Africa, hoping to capture a 
whole family of lions. In this they suc- 
ceeded. With a pack of hounds and plenty of 
aborigines to poke the jungle with sticks, they 
drove a big male lion, with his wife and four 
whelps, out of the undergrowth into a circle. In 
the centre, they had dug a pit and covered it over 
with sticks and grass. Into this, the whole lion 
family tumbled. Then, by nets and ropes, the 
big, fierce creatures and the little cubs were 
lifted out. They were put in cages and brought 
to Holland. The baby lions, no bigger than pug 
dogs, were as pretty and harmless as kittens. 
The sailors delighted to play with them. 

Now lions, even before one was ever seen 
among the Dutch, enjoyed a great reputation 
for strength, courage, dignity and power. It was 
believed that they had all the traits of character 
supposed to belong to kings, and which boys like 
to possess. Many fathers had named their sons 
Leo, which is Latin for lion. Dutch daddies had 
their baby boys christened with the name of 
Leeuw, which is their word for the king of 
beasts. 


127 


128 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Before lions were brought from the hot 
countries into colder lands, the bear and wolf 
were most admired; because, besides possessing 
plenty of fur, as well as great claws and terrible 
teeth, they had great courage. For these rea- 
sons, many royal and common folks had taken 
the wolf and bear as namesakes for their hope- 
ful sons. 

But the male lion could make more noise than 
wolves, for he could roar, while they could only 
howl. He had a shaggy mane and a very long 
tail. This had a nail at the end, for scratching 
and combing out his hair, when tangled up. If 
he were angry, the mighty brute could stick out 
his red tongue, curled like a pump handle, and 
nearly half a yard long. 

So the lion was called the king of beasts, and 
the crowned rulers and knights took him as their 
emblem. They had pictures of the huge creature 
painted on their flags, shields and armor. Some- 
times they stuck a gold or brass lion on their iron 
war hats, which they called helmets. No knight 
was allowed to have more than one lion on his 
shield, but kings might have three or four, or 
even a whole menagerie of meat-eating creatures. 
These painted or sculptured lions were in all sorts 
of action, running, walking, standing up and 
looking behind or before. 

Now there was a Dutch artist, who noticed 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


129 

what funny fellows kings were, and how they 
liked to have all sorts of beasts and birds of 
prey, and sea creatures that devour, on their 
banners. There were dragons, two-headed 
eagles, boars with tusks, serpents with fangs, 
hawks, griffins, wyverns, lions, dragons and 
dragon-lions, besides horses with wings, mer- 
maids with scaly tails, and even night mares that 
went flying through the dark. With such a 
funny variety of beast, bird, and fish, some won- 
dered why there were not cows with two tails, 
cats with two noses, rams with four horns, and 
creatures that were half veal and half mutton. 
He noticed that kings did not care much for tame, 
quiet, peaceable, or useful creatures, such as oxen 
or horses, doves or sheep; but only for those 
brutes that hunt and kill the more defenceless 
creatures. 

Since, then, kings of the country must have a 
lion, the artist resolved to make a new one. He 
would have some fun, at any rate. 

So as painter or sculptor select men and 
women to pose for them in their study as their 
heroes and heroines, and just as they picture 
plump little boys and girls as cherubs and angels, 
so the Dutchman would make of the cubs and 
the father beast of prey his models for coats of 
arms. 

Poor lions ! They did not know, but they soon 


130 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


found out how tiresome it was to pose. They 
must hold their paws up, down, sideways or be- 
hind, according as they were told. They must 
stand or kneel, for a long time, in awkward posi- 
tions. They must stick out their tongues to full 
length, walk on their hind legs, twist their necks, 
to one side or the other, look forward or back- 
ward, and in many tiresome ways do just as 
they were ordered. They must also make of 
their tails every sort of use, whether to wrap 
around posts or bundles, to stick out of their 
cage, or put between their legs, as they ran away, 
or to whisk them around, as they roared ; or hoist 
them up high when rampant. 

In some cases, they were expected, even, to 
put on spectacles, and pretend to be reading, to 
hold in their paws books and scrolls, or town 
arms, or shop signs. They must pose, not only 
as companions of Daniel, in the lions’ den at 
Babylon, which was proper; but also to sit, as 
companion of St. Mark, and even to stand on 
their legs on the top of a high column, without 
falling off. 

In a word, this artist belonged to the college 
of heralds, and he introduced the king of beasts 
into Dutch heraldry. 

So from that day forth, the life of that family 
of African lions, from the daddy to the youngest 
cub, was made a burden. When at home in the 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


*3 l 

jungle and even in the cage, the father lion’s 
favorite position was that of lolling on one side, 
with his paws stretched out, and half asleep and 
all day, until he went out, towards dark, to hunt. 
Now, he must stand up, nearly all day. Daddy 
lion had to do most of the posing, until the poor 
beast’s front legs and paws were weary with 
standing so long. Moreover, the hair was all 
worn off his body at the place where he had to 
sit on the hard wooden floor. He must do all 
this, on penalty of being punched with a red hot 
poker, if he refused. A charcoal furnace and 
long andirons were kept near by, and these were 
attended to by a Dutch boy. Or, it might be 
that the whole family of lions were not allowed 
to have any dinner till Daddy obeyed and did 
what he was told, though often with a snarl or 
a roar. 

First, Leo must rise upon his hind legs and 
look in front of him. This posture was not hard, 
for in his native jungle, he had often thus ob- 
tained a breakfast of venison for his wife and 
family. But oh, to stand a half hour on two legs 
only, when he had four, and would gladly have 
used all of them, was hard. Yet this was the 
position, called “ the lion rampant,” which kings 
liked best. 

But the king’s uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, 
and his wife’s relations generally, every one of 


* 3 2 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


them, wanted a lion on his or her stationery and 
pocket handkerchiefs, as well as on their shields 
and flags. So the old lion was tortured — the hot 
poker being always in sight — and he was made 
to take a great variety of positions. The artist 
called out to Leo, just as a driver says to his 
cart horse, “ whoa,” “ get up,” “ golong,” etc. 
When he yelled in this fashion, the lion had to 
obey. 

Pretty soon lions in heraldry, on flags, armor, 
town arms, family crests and city seals became 
all the fashion. The whole country went lion- 
mad. There were lions carved in stone, wood 
and iron, and every sort and kind, possible or im- 
possible. Some of them seemed to be engaged 
in a variety of tricks, as if they belonged to a 
circus, or were having a holiday. They laughed, 
giggled, yawned, stuck out their tongues, held 
boards for hotels, bundles for the shopkeepers, 
or barrels for beer halls, and made excellent shop 
signs, which the boys and girls enjoyed look- 
ing at. 

Mrs. Leo was not in much demand, for Mr. 
Leo did not approve of his wife’s appearing in 
public. She was kept busy in taking care of 
her cubs. Daddy Lion had to do multiple work 
for his family, until the cubs were grown. Yet 
long before this time had come, their Dad had 
died and been stuffed for a museum. How this 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


*33 

first king of beasts in the Netherlands came to 
his untimely end was on this wise. 

Not satisfied with posing Leo in every posture, 
and with all possible gestures, his master, the 
artist, wanted him to look “ heraldical ” ; that is, 
like some of the mythical beasts that were com- 
binations of any and all creatures having fins, 
fur, feathers, or scales, such as the dragon or 
griffin. One day, he attempted to make out of 
a live lion a fanciful creature of curlicues and 
curliewurlies. So he strapped the lion down, 
and used a curling iron on his mane until he 
looked like a bearded bull of Babylon. Then 
he combed out, and, with curl papers, twisted 
the long line of hair, which is seen in front 
of Leo’s stomach. In like manner, he treated 
the bunches of hair that grow over the animal’s 
kneepans and elbows. Last of all, he took a hair 
brush, and smoothed out the tuft, at the end of 
the animal’s long tail. Then the artist made a 
picture of him in this condition, all curled and 
rich in ringlets, like a dandy. 

By this time, the father of the lion family 
looked as if he had come out fresh from a hair- 
dresser’s parlor. Indeed, Mrs. Leo was so 
struck with her husband’s appearance, that she 
immediately licked her cubs all over, until their 
fur shone, so they should look like their father. 
Then, having used her tongue as a comb, to make 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


134 

her own skin smooth and glossy, she completed 
the job by using the nail in her tail, to do the 
finishing work. Altogether, this was the curliest 
family of lions ever seen, and Daddy Leo ap- 
peared to be the funniest curly-headed and curly- 
bodied lion ever seen. In fact he was all curls, 
from head to tail. 

Notwithstanding all his pains, the artist was 
not yet satisfied with his job. He wanted a 
circle of long hair to grow in the middle of the 
lion’s tail. His curly lion should beat all crea- 
tion, and in this way he proceeded. 

His own daughter, being a young lady and 
having some trouble of the throat, the doctor 
had ordered medicine for the girl, charging her 
not to spill any drops of the liquid on her face, 
or clothes. 

But, in giving the dose, either the mother, or 
the daughter, was careless. At that very moment 
the eat ran across the room, after the mouse, and 
just as she held the spoon to her mouth, Puss got 
twisted in her skirts. So most of the medicine 
splashed upon her upper lip and then ran down 
to her chin, on either side of her mouth. She 
laughed over the spill, wiped off the liquid, and 
thought no more of the matter. 

But a week later, she was astonished. On 
waking, she looked in the glass, only to shrink 
back in horror. On her face had grown both 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


*35 


moustaches and a beard. True, both were rather 
downy, but still they were black; and, until the 
barber came, and shaved off the growth, she was 
a bearded woman. Yet, strange to tell, after 
one or two shaves by the barber, no more hair 
grew again on her face, which was smooth again. 

“ By Saint Servatus ! I’ll make a fortune on 
this,” cried the artist, when he saw his daugh- 
ter’s hairy face. 

So, he sold his secret to a druggist, and this 
man made an ointment, giving it a Chinese name, 
meaning “ beard-grower.” This wonderful medi- 
cine, as his sign declared, would “ force the 
growth of luxuriant moustaches and a beard, on 
the smoothest face of any young man,” who 
should buy and apply it. 

Soon the whole town rang with the news of the 
wonderful discovery. The druggist sold out his 
stock, in two days, to happy purchasers. Other 
young fellows, that wanted to outrival their com- 
panions, had to wait a fortnight for the new 
medicine to be made. By that time, a full crop 
of doAvny hair had come out on the cheeks and 
chin and upper lip of many a youth. Some, who 
had been trying for years to raise moustaches, in 
order duly to impress the girls, to whom they 
were making love, were now jubilant. In sev- 
eral cases, a lover was able to cut out his rival 
and win the maid he wanted. Several courtings 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


136 

were hastened and became genuine matches, be- 
cause a face, long very smooth, and like a desert 
as to hair, bore a promising crop. Beard and 
cheeks had at last met together. So the new 
medicine was called a “ match-maker.” 

The artist rubbed his hands in glee, at the 
prospect of a fortune. He argued that if the 
wonderful ointment made beards for men, it 
must be good for lions also. So again, Daddy 
Lion was coerced by the threat of the hot poker. 
Then his tail was seized, and, by means of a 
rope, tied to a post on one side of the cage, he 
was held fast. Then the artist anointed about six 
inches of the middle of the smooth tail with the 
magic liquid. For fear the lion might lick it off, 
the poor beast was held in this tiresome position 
for a whole week, so that he could not turn round, 
and he nearly died of fatigue. 

But it happened to the lion’s tail, as it did with 
the young men’s chins, cheeks and upper lips. 
A beard did indeed grow, but once shaved off — 
and many did shave, thinking to promote greater 
growth — no more hair ever appeared again. 
The ointment forced a downy growth but it 
killed the roots of the hair. 

A worse fate befell the lion. A crop of hair, 
perhaps an inch longer than common, grew out. 
But this time, the bad medicine, which had de- 
ceived men, and was unfit for lions, struck in. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


l 37 

From this cause, added to nervous prostration, 
old Leo fell dead. As lion fathers go, he was a 
good one, and his widow and children mourned 
for him. He had never once, however hungry, 
tried to eat up his cubs, which was something in 
his favor. 

Soon after these exploits, the old artist died 
also. His son, hearing there was still a de- 
mand, among kings, for lions, and those especially 
with centre curls in their tails, took the most 
promising of the whelps and petted and fed 
him well. In the seventh year, when his mane 
and elbow and knee hair had grown out, this cub 
was mated to a young lioness of like promise. 
When, of this couple, a male whelp was born, it 
was found that in due time its knees, elbows, tail- 
tuft, and the front of its body were all rich in 
furry growth. In the middle of its tail, also, 
thick ringlets, several inches long, were growing. 
Evidently, the hair tonic had done some good. 
So this one became the father of all the curly- 
tailed lions in the Netherlands. Not only was 
this lion, thus distinguished for so novel an orna- 
ment, copied into heraldry, but it adorned many 
city seals and town arms. In time, the lion of 
the Netherlands was pictured with a crown on 
its head, a sword in its right hand, a bundle of 
seven arrows — in token of a union of seven 
states — and, still later, the new Order of the 


138 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

Netherlands Lion was founded. The original 
curly lion, with long hair in the middle of its 
tail, boasts of a long line of descendants that are 
proud of their ancestor. 


BRABO AND THE GIANT 

A GES ago, when the giants were numer- 
ous on the earth, there lived a big fellow 
named Antigonus. That was not what 
his mother had called him, but some one told 
him of a Greek general of that name ; so he took 
this for his own. He was rough and cruel. 
His castle was on the Scheldt River, where the 
city of Antwerp now stands. Many ships sailed 
out of France and Holland, down this stream. 
They were loaded with timber, flax, iron, cheese, 
fish, bread, linen, and other things made in the 
country. It was by this trade that many mer- 
chants grew rich, and their children had plenty 
of toys to play with. The river was very grand, 
deep, and wide. The captains of the ships liked 
to sail on it, because there was no danger from 
rocks, and the country through which it flowed 
was so pretty. 

So every day, one could see hundreds of white- 
sailed craft moving towards the sea, or coming 
in from the ocean. Boys and girls came down to 
stand in their wooden shoes on the banks, to see 
139 


140 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


the vessels moving to and fro. The incoming 
ships brought sugar, wine, oranges, lemons, olives 
and other good things to eat, and wool to make 
warm clothes. Often craftsmen came from the 
wonderful countries in the south to tell of the 
rich cities there, and help to build new and fine 
houses, and splendid churches, and town halls. 
So all the Belgian people were happy. 

But one day, this wicked giant came into the 
country to stop the ships and make them pay 
him money. He reared a strong castle on the 
river banks. It had four sides and high walls, 
and deep down in the earth were dark, damp 
dungeons. One had to light a candle to find his 
way to the horrid places. 

What was it all for? The people wondered, 
but they soon found out. The giant, with a big 
knotted club, made out of an oak tree, strode 
through the town. He cried out to all the peo- 
ple to assemble in the great open square. 

“ From this day forth,” he roared, “ no ship, 
whether up or down the river, shall pass by this 
place, without my permission. Every captain 
must pay me toll, in money or goods. Whoever 
refuses, shall have both his hands cut off and 
thrown into the river. 

“ Hear ye all and obey. Any one caught in 
helping a ship go by without paying toll, whether 
it be night, or whether it be day, shall have his 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


H l 

thumbs cut off and be put in the dark dungeon 
for a month. Again I say, Obey! ” 

With this, the giant swung and twirled his club 
aloft and then brought it down on a poor coun- 
tryman’s cart, smashing it into flinders. This 
was done to show his strength. 

So every day, when the ships hove in sight, 
they were hailed from the giant’s castle and made 
to pay heavy toll. Poor or rich, they had to 
hand over their money. If any captain refused, 
he was brought ashore and made to kneel before 
a block and place one hand upon the other. 
Then the giant swung his axe and cut off both 
hands, and flung* them into the river. If a ship 
master hesitated, because he had no money, he 
was cast into a dungeon, until his friends paid 
his ransom. 

Soon, on account of this, the city got a bad 
name. The captains from France kept in, and 
the ship men from Spain kept out. The mer- 
chants found their trade dwindling, and they 
grew poorer every day. So some of them 
slipped out of the city and tried to get the ships 
to sail in the night, and silently pass the giant’s 
castle. 

But the giant’s watchers, on the towers, were 
as wide awake as owls and greedy as hawks. 
They pounced on the ship captains, chopj>ed off 
their hands and tossed them into the river. The 


142 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


townspeople, who were found on board, were 
thrown into the dungeons and had their thumbs 
cut off. 

So the prosperity of the city was destroyed, 
for the foreign merchants were afraid to send 
their ships into the giant’s country. The repu- 
tation of the city grew worse. It was nicknamed 
by the Germans Hand Werpen, or Hand Throw- 
ing; while the Dutchmen called it Antwerp, 
which meant the same thing. The Duke of 
Brabant, or Lord of the land, came to the big 
fellow’s fortress and told him to stop. He even 
shook his fist under the giant’s huge nose, and 
threatened to attack his castle and burn it. But 
Antigonus only snapped his fingers, and laughed 
at him. He made his castle still stronger and 
kept on hailing ships, throwing some of the crews 
into dungeons and cutting off the hands of the 
captains, until the fish in the river grew fat. 

Now there was a brave young fellow named 
Brabo, who lived in the province of Brabant. 
He was proud of his country and her flag of 
yellow, black and red, and was loyal to his lord. 
He studied the castle well and saw a window, 
where he could climb up into the giant’s chamber. 

Going to the Duke, Brabo promised if his 
lord’s soldiers would storm the gates of the 
giant’s castle, that he would seek out and fight 
the ruffian. While they battered down the gates. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


H3 

he would climb the walls. “ He’s nothing but a 
‘bulle-wak’” (a bully and a boaster), said 
Brabo, “ and we ought to call him that, instead 
of Antigonus.” 

The Duke agreed. On a dark night, one 
thousand of his best men-at-arms were marched 
with their banners, but with no drums or trump- 
ets, or anything that could make a noise and 
alarm the watchmen. 

Reaching a wood full of big trees near the 
castle, they waited till after midnight. All the 
dogs in the town and country, for five miles 
around, were seized and put into barns, so as 
not to bark and wake the giant up. They were 
given plenty to eat, so that they quickly fell 
asleep and were perfectly quiet. 

At the given signal, hundreds of men holding 
ship’s masts, or tree trunks, marched against the 
gates. They punched and pounded and at last 
smashed the iron-bound timbers and rushed in. 
After overcoming the garrison, they lighted 
candles, and unlocking the dungeons, went down 
and set the poor half-starved captives free. 
Some of them pale, haggard and thin as hop 
poles, could hardly stand. About the same 
time, the barn doors where the dogs had been 
kept, were thrown open. In full cry, a regi- 
ment of the animals, from puppies to hounds, 
were at once out, barking, baying, and yelping. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


144 

as if they knew what was going on and wanted 
to see the fun. 

But where was the giant? None of the cap- 
tains could find him. Not one of the pris- 
oners or the garrison could tell where he had 
hid. 

But Brabo knew that the big fellow, Antig- 
onus, was not at all brave, but really only a 
bully and a coward. So the lad was not afraid. 
Some of his comrades outside helped him to set 
up a tall ladder against the wall. Then, while 
all the watchers and men-at-arms inside, had 
gone away to defend the gates, Brabo climbed 
into the castle, through a slit in the thick wall. 
This had been cut out, like a window, for the 
bow-and-arrow men, and was usually occupied 
by a sentinel. Sword in hand, Brabo made for 
the giant’s own room. Glaring at the youth, 
the big fellow seized his club and brought it 
down with such force that it went through the 
wooden floor. But Brabo dodged the blow and, 
in a trice, made a sweep with his sword. Cutting 
off the giant’s head, he threw it out the window. 
It had hardly touched the ground, before the 
dogs arrived. One of the largest of these ran 
away with the trophy and the big, hairy noddle 
of the bully was never found again. 

But the giant’s huge hands! Ah, they were 
cut off by Brabo, who stood on the very top of 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


H5 

the highest tower, while all below looked up and 
cheered. Brabo laid one big hand on top of the 
other, as the giant used to do, when he cut off 
the hands of captains. He took first the right 
hand and then the left hand and threw them, one 
at a time, into the river. 

A pretty sight now revealed the fact that the 
people knew what had been going on and were 
proud of Brabo’s valor. In a moment, every 
house in Antwerp showed lighted candles, and 
the city was illuminated. Issuing from the gates 
came a company of maidens. They were dressed 
in white, but their leader was robed in yellow, 
red, and black, the colors of the Brabant flag., 
They all sang in chorus the praises of Brabo 
their hero. 

“ Let us now drop the term of disgrace to 
the city — that of the Hand-Throwing and give 
it a new name,” said one of the leading men of 
Antwerp. 

“ No,” said the chief ruler, “ let us rather keep 
the name, and, more than ever, invite all peace- 
ful ships to come again, ‘an-’t-werf’ (at the 
wharf), as of old. Then, let the arms of Ant- 
werp be two red hands above a castle.” 

“ Agreed,” cried the citizens with a great 
shout. The Duke of Brabant approved and 
gave new privileges to the city, on account of 
Brabo’s bravery. So, from high to low, all re- 


146 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

joicecl to honor their hero, who was richly re- 
warded. 

After this, thousands of ships, from many 
countries, loaded or unloaded their cargoes on 
the wharves, or sailed peacefully by. Antwerp 
excelled all seaports and became very rich again. 
Her people loved their native city so dearly, that 
they coined the proverb “ All the world is a ring, 
and Antwerp is the pearl set in it.” 

To this day, in the great square, rises the splen- 
did bronze monument of Brabo the Brave. The 
headless and handless hulk of the giant An- 
tigonus lies sprawling, while on his body rests 
Antwerp castle. Standing over all, at the top, 
is Brabo high in air. He holds one of the hands 
of Antigonus, which he is about to toss into the 
Scheldt River. 

No people honor valor more than the Belgians. 
Themselves are to-day, as of old, among the 
bravest. 


THE FARM THAT RAN AWAY AND 
CAME BACK 

T HERE was once a Dutchman, who lived 
in the province called Drenthe. Be- 
cause there was a row of little trees on his 
farm, his name was Ryer Van Boompjes; that is, 
Ryer of the Little Trees. After a while, he 
moved to the shore of the Zuyder Zee and into 
Overijssel. Overijssel means over the Ijssel 
River. There he bought a new farm, near the 
village of Blokzyl. By dyking and pumping, 
certain wise men had changed ten acres, of sand 
and heath, into pasture and land for plowing.' 
They surrounded it on three sides with canals. 
The fourth side fronted on the Zuyder Zee. 
Then they advertised, in glowing language, the 
merits of the new land and Ryer Van Boompjes 
bought it and paid for his real estate. He was 
as proud as a popinjay of his island and he ruled 
over it like a Czar or a Kaiser. 

A few years before, Ryer had married a 
“ queezel,” as the Dutch call either a nun, or a 
maid who is no longer young. At this date, 
when our story begins, he had four blooming, but 
old-fashioned children, with good appetites. 
147 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


148 

They could eat cabbage and potatoes, rye bread 
and cheese, by the half peck, and drink butter- 
milk by the quart. In addition, Ryer owned 
four horses, six cows, two dogs, some roosters 
and hens, a flock of geese, two dozen ducks, and 
a donkey. 

Yet although Ryer was rich, as wealth is 
reckoned in Drenthe, whence he had come, he 
was greedy for more. He skimped the food of 
his animals. So much did he do this, that his 
neighbors declared that they had seen him put 
green spectacles on his cows and the donkey. 
Then he mixed straws and shavings with the hay 
to make the animals think they were eating fresh 
grass. 

When he ploughed, he drove his horses close 
to the edge next to the water, so as to make use 
of every half inch of land. When sometimes bits 
of fen land, from his neighbor’s farms, got loose 
and floated on the water, Ryer felt he was in 
luck. He would go out at night, grapple the 
boggy stuff and fasten it to his own land. 

After this had happened several times, and 
Ryer had added a half acre to his holdings, his 
greed possessed him like a bad fairy. He began 
to steal the land on the other side of the Zuyder 
Zee. In the course of time, he became a regular 
land thief. Whenever he saw, or heard of, a 
floating bit of territory, he rowed his boat after 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


H9 

it by night. Before morning, aided by wicked 
helpers, who shared in the plunder, and were in 
his pay, he would have the bog attached to his 
own farm. 

All this time, he hardly realized that his ill- 
gotten property, now increased to twelve acres 
or more, was itself a very shaky bit of real estate. 
In fact, it was not real at all. His wife one day 
told him so, for she knew of her mean husband’s 
trickery. 

About this time, heavy rains fell, for many 
days, and without ceasing, until all the region 
was reduced to pulp and the country seemed 
afloat. The dykes appeared ready to burst. 
Thousands feared that the land had an attack of 
the disease called val (fall) and that the soil 
would sink under the waves as portions of the 
realm had done before, in days long gone by. 

Yet none of this impending trouble worried 
Ryer, whose greed grew by what it fed upon. 
In fact, the first day the sun shone again, quickly 
drying up parts of his farm, he had two horses 
harnessed up for work. Then he drove them so 
near the edge of the ditch that plough, man, and 
horses tumbled, and down they went, into the 
shiny mess of mud and water. 

At this moment, also, the water, from below 
the bottom of the Zuyder Zee, welled up, in a 
great wave, like a mushroom, and the whole of 


150 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Ryer’s soggy estate was on the point of breaking 
loose and seemed ready to float away. 

The stingy fellow, as he fell overboard, bumped 
his head so hard on the plough beam, that he lay 
senseless for a half hour. He would certainly 
have been drowned, had not Pete, his stout son, 
who was not far away, and had seen the tumble, 
ran to the house, launched a boat and rowed 
quickly to the spot, where he had last seen his 
father. Grabbing his daddy by the collar, he 
hauled him, half dead, into the boat. Between 
his bump and his fright, and the cold bath, old 
Ryer was a long time coming to his wits. With 
filial piety, Pete kept on rubbing the paternal 
hands and restoring the circulation. 

All this, however, took a long time, even an 
hour or more. When his father was able to sit 
up and talk, Pete started to row back to the little 
wharf in front of his home. 

But where was it, — the farm, with the house 
and fields? Whither had they gone? Ryer was 
too mystified to get his bearings, but Pete knew 
the points of the compass. Yet his father’s farm 
was not there. He looked at the shore of Over- 
ijssel, which he had left. Instead of the old, 
straight lines of willow trees, with the church 
spire beyond, there was a hollow and empty place. 
It looked as if a giant, as big as the world itself, 
had bitten out a piece of land and swallowed it 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


15 * 

down. Dumbfounded, father and son looked, 
the one at the other, but said nothing, for there 
was nothing to say. 

Meanwhile, what had become of the farm and 
“ the Queezel,” as the neighbors still called her — 
that is, the mother with the children. These 
good people soon saw that they were floating off 
somewhere. The mainland was every moment 
receding further into the distance. In fact, the 
farm was moving from Overijssel northward, to- 
wards F riesland. One by one, the church spires 
of the village near by faded from sight. 

But when the wind changed from south to 
west, they seemed as if on a ship, with sails set, 
and to be making due west, for North Holland. 
The younger children, so far from being afraid, 
clapped their hands in glee. They thought it 
great fun to ferry across the big water, which 
they had so long seen before their eyes. Their 
stingy father had never owned a carriage, or al- 
lowed the horses to be ridden. He always made 
his family walk to church. Whether it were to 
the sermon, in the morning, or to hear the cate- 
chism expounded by the Domine, in the after- 
noon, all the family had to tramp on their wooden 
shoes there and back. 

As for the floating farm, the cows could not 
understand it. They mooed piteously, while the 
donkey brayed loudly. At night, and day after 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


* 5 2 

clay, no one could attend properly to the animals, 
to see that they were fed and given water. One 
always sees a big tub in the middle of a Dutch 
pasture field. Neither ducks, nor geese, nor 
chickens minded it in the least, but the thirsty 
cattle and horses, at the end of the first day, had 
drunk the tub dry. None of the dumb brutes, 
even if they had not been afraid of being 
drowned, could drink from the Zuyder Zee, for 
it was chiefly sea water, that is, salt, or at least 
brackish. 

Occasionally this errant farm, that had thus 
broken loose, passed by fishermen, who wondered 
at so much land thus adrift. Yet they feared to 
hail, and go on board, lest the owners might think 
them intruding. Others thought it none of their 
business, supposing some crazy fellow was using 
his farm as a ship, to move his lands, goods and 
household, and thus save expense. In some of 
the villages, the runaway farm was descried from 
the tops of the church towers. Then, it fur- 
nished a subject for chat and gossip, during three 
days, to the women, as they milked the cows, or 
knitted stockings. To the men, also, while they 
smoked, or drank their coffee, it was a lively 
topic. 

“ There were real people on it and a house and 
stables,” said the sexton of a church, who de- 
clared that he had seen this new sort of a flying 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


l 53 

Dutchman. It was the usual sight — “ cow, dog, 
and stork,” and then he quoted the old Dutch 
proverb. 

At last, after several days, and when Ryer 
and his son were nearly finished, with fatigue and 
fright, in trying to row their boat to catch up 
with the runaway farm, they finally reached a 
village across the Zuyder Zee, in North Holland, 
where rye bread and turnips satisfied their hun- 
ger and they had waffles for dessert. Their small 
change went quickly, and then the two men were 
at their wit’s end to know what further to do. 

By this time, out on the floating farm, the 
mother and children were wild with fear of starv- 
ing. All the food for the cattle had been eaten 
up, the dog had no meat, the cat no milk, and the 
stork had run out of its supply of frogs. There 
was no sugar or coffee, and neither rye nor cur- 
rant-bread, or sliced sausage or wafer-thin cheese 
for any one; but only potatoes and some barley 
grain. Happily, however, in drifting within 
sight of the village of Osterbeek, the mother and 
the children noticed that the east wind was fresh- 
ening. Soon they descried the tops of the 
church towers of North Holland. The smell of 
cows and cheese and of burning peat fires from 
the chimneys made both animals and human be- 
ings happy, as the wind blew the island west- 
ward to the village. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


* 5 + 

Curiously enough, this was the very place 
at which, by hard rowing, Ryer and Pete had 
also arrived. Father and son were sitting in the 
hotel parlor, with their eyes down on the sandy 
floor, wondering how they were to pay for their 
next sandwich and coffee, for their money was 
all gone. 

At that moment, a small boy clattered over the 
bricks in his klomps. He kicked these off, at 
the door, and rushed into the room. He had on 
his yellow baggy trousers and his hair, of the 
same color, was cut level with his ears. Half out 
of breath, he announced the coming, afloat, of 
what looked like a combination of farm and 
menagerie. A house, a woman, some girls, a 
dog, a cat, and a stork were on it and afloat. 

At once, old man Ryer, still stiff from his long, 
cold bath, hobbled out, and Pete ran before him. 
Yes, it was mother, the children and all the 
animals! For the first time in his life, the mean 
old sinner felt his heart thumping, in grateful 
emotion, under his woolen jacket, with its two 
gold buttons. Something like real religion had 
finally oozed out from under his crusted soul. 

A whole convoy of boys, fishermen, farmers, 
and a fat vrouw or two, volunteered to go out 
and tow the runaway farm to the village wharf. 
They succeeded in grappling the float and held 
it fast by ropes tied to a horse post. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


l 55 


That night all were happy. The farm was 
made fast by another rope put round the town 
pump. Then the villagers all went to bed. 
They were happy in having rescued a runaway 
farm, and they expected a good “loon” (re- 
ward) from the rich old Ryer, who, in the bar- 
room, had talked big about his wealth. 

As for the Van Boompjes, in order to save a 
landlord’s bill for beds, they slept in their house, 
on board the farm, amid the lowing of their cattle 
that called out, in their own way, for more fod- 
der; while the people in the village wondered at 
roosters crowing out on the water, and evidently 
the barn-yard birds were frightened. 

And so they were; for, before midnight, when 
all other creatures were asleep, and not even a 
mouse was stirring on land, whether hard fast, 
or floating, the west wind rose mightily and blew 
to a terrific gale. 

In a moment, the tow lines, that held the 
vagrant farm to the village pump and horse post, 
snapped. The Van Boompjes estate left the 
wharf and was driven, at a furious rate, across 
the Zuyder Zee. For several hours, like a ship 
under full sail, it was pushed westward by the 
wind. Yet so soundly did all sleep, man and 
wife, children and hens, that none awakened dur- 
ing this strange voyage. Even the roosters, 
after their first concert, held in their voices. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


156 

Suddenly, and as straight as if steered by a 
skilled pilot, the Van Boompjes farm, now an 
accomplished traveller, after its many adventures, 
shot into its old place. This took place with such 
violence, that Ryer Van Eoompjes and his wife 
were both thrown out of bed. The cows were 
knocked over in the stable. The dog barked, 
supposing some one had kicked him. One old 
rooster, jostled off his perch, set up a tremendous 
crowing, that brought some of the early risers out 
to rub their eyes and see what was going on. 

“ Hemel en aard, bliksem en regen ” (Heaven 
and earth, lightning and rain), they cried, “ the 
old farm is back in its place.” 

In fact, the Van Boompjes real estate was 
snugly fitted once more to the mainland, and 
again in the niche it had left. It had struck so 
hard, that a ridge of raised sod, five inches high, 
marked the place of junction. At least twenty 
fishes and wriggling eels were smashed in the 
collision. 

From that day forth the conscience of Van 
Boompjes returned, and he actually became an 
honest man. He sawed off, from time to time, 
portions of his big farm, and returned them home, 
with money paid as interest, to the owners. He 
found out all the mynheers, whose bits of land 
had drifted off. He sent a tidy sum of gold to 
the village in North Holland, where his farm had 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


157 


been moored, for a few hours. With a good 
conscience, he went to church and worshipped. 
His action, at each of the two collections, which 
Dutch folks always take up on Sundays, was 
noticed and praised as a sure and public sign of 
the old sinner’s true repentance. When the 
deacons, with their white gloves on, poked under 
his nose their black velvet bags, hung at the end 
of fishing poles, ten feet long, this man, who had 
been for years a skinflint, dropped in a silver 
coin each time. 

On the farm, all the animals, from duck to 
stork, and from dog to ox, now led happier lives. 
In the family, all declared that the behavior of 
the farm and the wind of the Zuyder Zee had 
combined to make a new man and a delightful 
father of old Van Boompjes. He lived long and 
happily and died greatly lamented. 


SANTA KLAAS AND BLACK PETE 


W HO is Santa Klaas? How did he get 
his name? Where does he live? Did 
you ever see him? 

These are questions, often asked of the story- 
teller, by little folks. 

Before Santa Klaas came into the Nether- 
lands, that is, to Belgium and Holland, he was 
called by many names, in the different countries 
in which he lived, and where he visited. Some 
people say he was born in Myra, many hundred 
years ago before the Dutch had a dyke or a 
windmill, or waffles, or wooden shoes. Others 
tell us how, in time of famine, the good saint 
found the bodies of three little boys, pickled in a 
tub, at a market for sale, and to be eaten up. 
They had been salted down to keep till sold. 
The kind gentleman and saint, whose name was 
Nicholas, restored these three children to life. 
It is said that once he lost his temper, and struck 
with his fist a gentleman named Arius; but the 
story-teller does not believe this, for he thinks it 
is a fib, made up long afterward. How could a 
saint lose his temper so? 

Another story they tell of this same Nicholas 
was this. There were three lovely maidens, 
158 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


*59 

whose father had lost all his money. They 
wanted husbands very badly, but had no money 
to buy fine clothes to get married in. He took 
pity on both their future husbands and them- 
selves. So he came to the window, and left three 
bags of gold, one after the other. Thus these 
three real girls all got real husbands, just as the 
novels tell us of the imaginary ones. They lived 
happily ever afterward, and never scolded their 
husbands. 

By and by, men who were goldsmiths, bankers 
or pawnbrokers, made a sign of these three bags 
of gold, in the shape of balls. Now they hang 
them over their shop doors, two above one. This 
means “ two to one, you will never get it 
again ” — when you put your ring, furs, or 
clothes, or watch, or spoons, in pawn. 

It is ridiculous how many stories they do tell 
of this good man, Nicholas, who was said to be 
what they call a bishop, or inspector, who goes 
around seeing that things are done properly in 
the churches. It was because the Reverend Mr. 
Nicholas had to travel about a good deal, that 
the sailors and travellers built temples and 
churches in his honor. To travel, one must have 
a ship on the sea and a horse on the land, or a 
reindeer up in the cold north; though now, it is 
said, he comes to Holland in a steamship, and 
uses an automobile. 


160 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

On Santa Klaas eve, each of the Dutch chil- 
dren sets out in the chimney his wooden shoe. 
Into it, he puts a whisp of hay, to feed the trav- 
eller’s horse. When St. Nicholas first came to 
Holland, he arrived in a sailing ship from Spain 
and rode on a horse. Now he arrives in a big 
steamer, made of steel. Perhaps he will come 
in the future by aeroplane. To fill all the shoes 
and stockings, the good saint must have an ani- 
mal to ride. Now the fast white horse, named 
Sleipnir, was ready for him, and on Sleipnir’s 
back he made his journeys. 

How was Santa Klaas dressed? 

His clothes were those of a bishop. He wore 
a red coat and his cap, higher than a turban and 
called a mitre, was split along two sides and 
pointed at the top. In his hands, he held a 
crozier, which was a staff borrowed from shep- 
herds, who tended sheep ; and with the crozier he 
helped the lambs over rough places; but the 
crozier of Santa Klaas was tipped with gold. 
He had white hair and rosy cheeks. For an old 
man, he was very active, but his heart and feel- 
ings never got to be one day older than a boy’s, 
for these began when mother love was born and 
father’s care was first in the world, but it never 
grows old. 

When Santa Klaas travelled up north to Nor- 
way and into the icy cold regions, where there 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


161 

were sleighs and reindeer, he changed his clothes. 
Instead of his red robe, he wears a jacket, much 
shorter and trimmed with ermine, white as snow. 
Taking off his mitre, he wears a cap of fur also, 
and has laid aside his crozier. In the snow, 
wheels are no good, and runners are the best for 
swift travel. So, instead of his white horse and 
a wagon, he drives in a sleigh, drawn by two 
stags with large horns. In every country, he 
puts into the children’s stockings hung up, or 
shoes set in the fireplace, something which they 
like. In Greenland, for example, he gives the 
little folks seal blubber, and fish hooks. So his 
presents are not the same in every country. 
However, for naughty boys and girls everywhere, 
instead of filling shoes and stockings, he may 
leave a switch, or pass them by empty. 

When Santa Klaas travels, he always brings 
back good things. Now when he first came to 
New Netherland in America, what did he find 
to take back to Holland? 

Well, it was here, on our continent, that he 
found corn, potatoes, pumpkins, maple sugar, 
and something to put in pipes to smoke; besides 
strange birds and animals, such as turkeys and 
raccoons, in addition to many new flowers. 
What may be called a weed, like the mullein, for 
example, is considered very pretty in Europe, 
where they did not have such things. There it 


l62 


DUTCHFAIRY TALES 


is called the American Velvet Plant, or the 
King’s Candlestick. 

But, better than all, Santa Klaas found a 
negro boy, Pete, who became one of the most 
faithful of his helpers. At Utrecht, in Holland, 
the students of the University give, every year, 
a pageant representing Santa Klaas on his white 
horse, with Black Pete, who is always on hand 
and very busy. Black Pete’s father brought 
peanuts from Africa to America, and sometimes 
Santa Klaas drops a bagful of these, as a great 
curiosity, into the shoes of the Dutch young 
folks. 

Santa Klaas was kept very busy visiting the 
homes and the public schools in New Netherland; 
for in these schools all the children, girls as well 
as boys, and not boys only, received a free educa- 
tion. In later visits he heard of Captain Kidd 
and his fellow pirates, who wore striped shirts 
and red caps, and had pigtails of hair, tied in eel 
skins, and hanging down their backs. These fel- 
lows wore earrings and stuck pistols in their belts 
and daggers at their sides. Instead of getting 
their gold honestly, and giving it to the poor, or 
making presents to the children, the pirates 
robbed ships. Then, as ’twas said, they buried 
their treasure. Lunatics and boys that read too 
many novels, have ever since been digging in the 
land to find Captain Kidd’s gold. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


163 

Santa Klaas does not like such iDeople. More- 
over, he was just as good to the poor slaves, as to 
white children. So the colored people loved the 
good saint also. Their pickaninnies always hung 
up their stockings on the evening of December 
sixth. 

Santa Klaas filled the souls of the people in 
New Netherland so full of his own spirit, that 
now children all over the United States, and 
those of Americans living in other countries, 
hang up their stockings and look for a visit from 
him. 

I11 Holland, Black Pete was very loyal and 
true to his master, carrying not only the boxes 
and bundles of presents for the good children, 
but also the switches for bad boys and girls. Be- 
tween the piles of pretty things to surprise good 
children, on one side, and the boxes of birch and 
rattan, the straps and hard hair-brush backs for 
naughty youngsters, Pete holds the horn of 
plenty. In this are dolls, boats, trumpets, 
drums, balls, toy houses, flags, the animals in 
Noah’s Ark, building blocks, toy castles and 
battleships, story and picture books, little loco- 
motives, cars, trains, automobiles, aeroplanes, 
rocking horses, windmills, besides cookies, can- 
dies, marbles, tops, fans, lace, and more nice 
things than one can count. 

Pete also takes care of the horse of Santa 


164 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

Klaas, named Sleipnir, which goes so fast that, 
in our day, the torpedo and submarine U-boats 
are named after him. This wonderful animal 
used to have eight feet, for swiftness. That was 
when Woden rode him, but, in course of time, 
four of his legs dropped off, so that the horse of 
Santa Klaas looks less like a centipede and more 
like other horses. Whenever Santa Klaas walks, 
Pete has to go on foot also, even though the 
chests full of presents for the children are very 
heavy and Pete has to carry them. 

Santa Klaas cares nothing about rich girls or 
poor girls, for all the kinds of boys he knows 
about or thinks of are good boys and bad boys. 
A youngster caught stealing jam out of the 
closet, or cookies from the kitchen, or girls lifting 
lumps of sugar out of the sugar bowl, or eating 
too much fudge, or that are mean, stingy, selfish, 
or have bad tempers, are considered naughty and 
more worthy of the switch than of presents. So 
are the boys who attend Sunday School for a 
few weeks before Christmas, and then do not 
come any more till next December. These 
Santa Klaas turns over to Pete, to be well 
thrashed. 

In Holland, Pete still keeps on the old dress 
of the time of New Netherland. He wears a 
short jacket, with wide striped trousers, in sev- 
eral bright colors, shoes strapped on his feet, a 



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DUTCH FAIRY TALES 165 

red cap and a ruff around his neck. Sometimes 
he catches bad boys, to put them in a bag for a 
half hour, to scare them ; or, he shuts them up in 
a dark closet, or sends them to bed without any 
supper. Or, instead of allowing them eleven 
buckwheat cakes at breakfast, he makes them 
stop at five. When Santa Klaas leaves Holland 
to go back to Spain, or elsewhere, Pete takes care 
of the nag Sleipnir, and hides himself until Santa 
Klaas comes again next year. 

The story-teller knows where Santa Klaas 
lives, but he won’t tell. 


THE GOBLINS TURNED TO STONE 


W HEN the cow came to Holland, the 
Dutch folks had more and better things 
to eat. Fields of wheat and rye took 
the place of forests. Instead of acorns and the 
meat of wild game, they now enjoyed milk and 
bread. The youngsters made pets of the calves 
and all the family lived under one roof. The 
cows had a happy time of it, because they were 
kept so clean, fed well, milked regularly, and 
cared for in winter. 

By and by the Dutch learned to make cheese 
and began to eat it every day. They liked it, 
whether it was raw, cooked, toasted, sliced, or in 
chunks, or served with other good things. Even 
the foxes and wild creatures were very fond of 
the smell and taste of toasted cheese. They 
came at night close to the houses, often stealing 
the cheese out of the pantry. When a fox would 
not, or could not, be caught in a trap by any 
other bait, a bit of cooked cheese would allure 
him so that he was caught and his fur made 
use of. 


166 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 167 

When the people could not get meat, or fish, 
they had toasted bread and cheese, which in 
Dutch is “ geroostered brod met kaas.” Then 
they laughed, and named the new dish after 
whatever they pretended it was. It was just the 
same, as when they called goodies, made out of 
flour and sugar, “ nuts,” “ fingers,” “ calves ” 
and “ lambs.” Even grown folks love to play 
and pretend things like children. 

Soon, it became the fashion to have cheese 
parties. Men and women would sit around the 
fire, by the hour, nibbling the toast that had 
melted cheese poured over it. But after they 
had gone to bed, some of them dreamed. 

Now some dreams may be pleasant, but cheese- 
dreams were not usually of this sort. The 
dreamer thought that a big she-horse had climbed 
upon the bed and sat down upon his stomach. 
Once there, the beast grinned hideously, snored, 
and pressed its hoofs down on the sleeper’s breast, 
so that he could not breathe or speak. The feel- 
ing was a horrible one; but, just when the 
dreamer expected to choke, he seemed to jump 
off some high place, and come down somewhere, 
very far off. Then the animal ran away and the 
terrible dream was over. 

This was called a nightmare, or in Dutch a 
“ nacht merrie.” “ Nacht ” means night, and 
“ merrie ” a filly or a mare. In the dream, it 


i68 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


was not a small or a young horse, but always 
a big mare that squatted down on a man’s 
stomach. 

In those days, instead of seeking for the 
trouble inside, or asking whether there was any 
connection between nightmares and too hearty 
eating of cheese, the Dutch fathers laid it all on 
the goblins. 

The goblins, or sooty elves, that used to live in 
Holland, were ugly, short fellows, very smart, 
quick in action and able to travel far in a second. 
They were first cousins to the kabouters. They 
had big heads, green eyes and split feet, like 
cows. They were so ugly, that they were or- 
dered to live under ground and never come out 
during the day. If they did, they would be 
turned to stone. 

The goblins had a bad reputation for mischief. 
They liked to have fun with human beings. They 
would listen to the conversation of people and 
then mock them by repeating the last word. 
That is the reason why echoes were called “ week 
klank,” or dwarf’s talk. 

Because these goblins were short, they envied 
men their greater stature and wanted to grow to 
the height of human beings. As they were not 
able of themselves to do this, they often sneaked 
into a house and snatched a child out of the 
cradle. In place of the stolen baby, one of their 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 169 

own wizened children was laid. That was the 
reason why many a poor little baby, that grew 
puny and thin, was called a “ wiseel-kind,” or 
changeling. When the sick baby could not get 
well, and medicine or care seemed to do no good, 
the mother thought that the goblins had taken 
away her own child. 

It was only the female goblins that would 
change themselves into night mares and sit on 
the body of the dreamer. They usually came in 
through a hole or a crack; but if that person in 
the house could plug up the hole, or stop the 
crack, he could conquer the female goblin, and 
do what he pleased with her. If a man wanted 
to, he could make her his wife. So long as the 
hole was kept stopped up, by which the goblin 
entered, she made a good wife. If this crack 
was left open, or if the plug dropped out of the 
hole, the she-goblin was off and could never be 
found again. 

The ruler of the goblins lived beneath the 
earth, as the king of the underworld. His 
palace was made of gold and glittered with gems. 
He had riches more than men could count. All 
the goblins and kabouters, who worked in the 
mines and at the forges and anvils, making 
swords, spears, bells, or jewels, obeyed him. 

The most wonderful things about these dwarfs 
was the way in which they made themselves in- 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


170 

visible, so that men were able to see neither the 
night mares nor the male goblins, while at their 
mischief. This was a little red cap which every 
goblin possessed, and which he was careful never 
to lose. The red cap acted like a snuffer on a 
candle, to put it out, and while under it, no goblin 
could be seen by mortal eyes. 

Now it happened that one night, as a dear old 
lady lay dying on her bed, a middle-sized goblin, 
with his red cap on, came in through a crack into 
the room, and stood at the foot of her bed. Just 
for mischief and to frighten her by making him- 
self visible, he took off his red cap. 

When the old lady saw the imp, she cried out 
loudly : 

“ Go way, go way. Don’t you know I belong 
to my Lord? ” 

But the goblin dwarf only laughed at her, with 
his green eyes. 

Calling her daughter Alida, the old lady whis- 
pered in her ear: 

“ Bring me my wooden shoes.” 

Rising up in her bed, the old lady hurled the 
heavy klomps, one after the other, at the goblin’s 
head. At this, he started to get out through the 
crack, and away, but before his body was half 
out, Alida snatched his red cap away. Then she 
stuck a needle in his cloven foot that made him 
howl with pain. Alida looked at the crack 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


171 

through which he escaped and found it quite 
sooty. 

Twirling the little red cap around on her fore- 
finger, a brilliant thought struck her. She went 
and told the men her plan, and they agreed to 
it. This was to gather hundreds of farmers and 
townfolk, boys and men together, on the next 
moonlight night, and round up all the goblins in 
Drenthe. By pulling off their caps, and hold- 
ing them till the sun rose, when they would be 
petrified, the whole brood could be exterminated. 

So, knowing that the goblin would come the 
next night, to steal back his red cap, she left a 
note outside the crack, telling him to bring sev- 
eral hundred goblins to the great moor, or veldt. 
There, at a certain hour near midnight, he would 
find the red caj) on a bush. With his com- 
panions, he could celebrate the return of the cap. 
In exchange for this, she asked the goblin to 
bring her a gold necklace. 

The moonlight night came round and hun- 
dreds of the men of Drenthe gathered together. 
They were armed with horseshoes, and with 
witch-hazel and other plants, which are like poison 
to the sooty elves. They had also bits of parch- 
ment covered with runes, a strange kind of writ- 
ing, and various charms which are supposed to be 
harmful to goblins. It was agreed to move to- 
gether in a circle towards the centre, where the 


1 7 2 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


lady Alida was to hang the red cap upon a bush. 
Then, with a rush, the men were to snatch off all 
the goblins’ caps, pulling and grabbing, whether 
they could see, or even feel anything, or not. 

The placing of the red cap upon the bush in 
the centre, by the lady Alida, was the signal. 

So, when the great round-up narrowed to a 
small space, the men began to grab, snatch and 
pull. Putting their hands out in the air, at the 
height of about a yard from the ground, they 
hustled and pushed hard. In a few minutes, 
hundreds of red caps were in their hands, and 
as many goblins became visible. They were, 
indeed, an ugly host. 

Yet hundreds of other goblins escaped, with 
their caps on, and were still invisible. As they 
broke away in groups, however, they were seen, 
for in each bunch was one or more visible fellow, 
because he was capless. So the men divided into 
squads, to chase the imps a long distance, even 
to many distant places. It was a most curious 
night battle. Here could be seen groups of men 
in a tussle with the goblins, many more of which, 
but by no means all, were made capless and 
visible. 

The racket kept up till the sky in the east was 
gray. Had all the goblins run away, it would 
have been well with them. Hundreds of them 
did, but the others were so anxious to help their 


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DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


m 

fellows, or to get back their own caps, fearing the 
disgrace of returning head bare to their king, 
and getting a good scolding, that the sun sud- 
denly rose on them, before they knew it was day. 

At the first level ray, the goblins were all 
turned to stone. 

The treeless, desolate land, which, a moment 
before, was full of struggling goblins and men, 
became as quiet as the blue sky above. Nothing 
but some rounded rocks or stones, in groups, 
marked the spot where the bloodless battle of 
imps and men had been fought. 

There, these stones, big and little, lie to this 
day. Among the buckwheat, and the potato 
blossoms of the summer, under the shadows and 
clouds, and whispering breezes of autumn, or 
covered with the snows of winter, they are seen on 
desolate heaths. Over some of them, oak trees, 
centuries old, have grown. Others are near, or 
among, the farmers’ grain fields, or, not far from 
houses and barn-yards. The cows wander among 
them, knowing nothing of their past. And the 
goblins come no more. 


THE MOULDY PENNY 


OLD makes a woman penny-white,” 



said the Dutch, in the days when fairies 


were plentiful and often in their 


thoughts. What did the proverb mean? Who 
ever saw a white penny? 

Well, that was long ago, when pennies were 
white, because they were then made of silver. 
Each one was worth a denary, which was a coin 
worth about a shilling, or a quarter of a dollar. 

As the Dutch had pounds, shillings and pence, 
before the English had them, we see what d in 
the signs £ s. d. means, that is, a denary, or a 
white penny, made of silver. 

In the old days, before the Dutch had houses 
with glass windows or clothes of cloth or linen, 
or hats or shoes, cows and horses, or butter and 
cheese, they knew nothing of money and they 
cared less. Almost everything, even the land, 
was owned in common by all. Their wants were 
few. Whenever they needed anything from 
other countries they swapped or bartered. In 
this way they traded salt for furs, or fish for iron. 


174 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 175 

But when they met with, or had to fight, an- 
other tribe that was stronger or richer, or knew 
more than they did, they required other things, 
which the forests and waters could not furnish. 
So, by and by, pedlars and merchants came up 
from the south. They brought new and strange 
articles, such as mirrors, jewelry, clothes, and 
pretty things, which the girls and women wanted 
and had begged their daddies and husbands to 
get for them. For the men, they brought iron 
tools and better weapons, improved traps, to 
catch wild beasts, and wagons, with wheels that 
had spokes. When regular trade began, it be- 
came necessary to have money of some kind. 
Then coins of gold, silver, and copper were seen 
in the towns and villages, and even in the woods 
and on the heaths of Holland. Yet there was a 
good deal that was strange and mysterious about 
these round, shining bits of metal, called money. 

“Money. What is money?” asked many a 
proud warrior disdainfully. 

Then the wise men explained to the fighting 
men, that money was named after J uno Moneta, 
a goddess in Rome. She told men that no one 
would ever want for money who was honest and 
just. Then, by and by, the mint was in her tem- 
ple and money was coined there. Then, later, 
in Holland, the word meant money, but many 
people, who wanted to get rich quickly, wor- 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


176 

shipped her. In time, however, the word “ gold ” 
meant money in general. 

When a great ruler, named Charlemagne, con- 
quered or made treaties with our ancestors, he 
allowed them to have mints and to coin money. 
Then, again, it seemed wonderful how the 
pedlars and the goldsmiths and the men called 
Lombards — strange long-bearded men from the 
south, who came among the Dutch — grew rich 
faster than the work people. They seemed to 
amass gold simply by handling money. 

When a man who knew what a silver penny 
would do, made a present of one to his wife, her 
face lighted up with joy. So in time, the word 
“ penny white,” meant the smiling face of a 
happy woman. Yet it was also noticed that the 
more people had, the more they wanted. The 
girls and boys quickly found that money would 
buy what the pedlars brought. In the towns, 
shops sprang up, in which were many curious 
things, which tempted people to buy. 

Some tried to spend their money and keep it 
too — to eat their cake and have it also — but they 
soon found that they could not do this. There 
were still many foolish, as well as wise people, 
in the land, even during the new time of money. 
A few saved their coins and were happy in giving 
some to the poor and needy. Many fathers had 
what was called a “ sparpot,” or home savings 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


177 

bank, and taught their children the right use of 
money. It began to be the custom for people to 
have family names, so that a girl was not merely 
the daughter of so-and-so, nor a boy the son of 
a certain father. In the selection of names, 
those which had the word “ penny ” in them 
proved to be very popular. To keep a coin in 
the little home bank, without spending it, long 
enough for it to gather mould, which it did easily 
in the damp climate of Holland, that is, to darken 
and get a crust on it, was considered a great 
virtue in the owner. This showed that the owner 
had a strong mind and power of self-control. So 
the name “Schimmelpennig,” or “ mouldy 
penny,” became honorable, because such people 
were wise and often kind and good. They did 
not waste their money, but made good use of it. 

On the other hand, were some mean and stingy 
folks, who liked to hear the coins jingle. In- 
stead of wisely spending their cash, or trading 
with it, they hoarded their coins ; that is, they hid 
them away in a stocking, or a purse, or in a jar, 
or a cracked cooking pot, that couldn’t be used. 
Often they put it away somewhere in the chim- 
ney, behind a loose brick. Then, at night, when 
no one was looking, these miserly folks counted, 
rubbed, jingled, and gloated over the shining 
coins and never helped anybody. So there grew 
up three sorts of people, called the thrifty, the 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


178 

spendthrifts, and the misers. These last were 
the meanest and most disliked of all. Others, 
again, hid their money away, so as to have some, 
when sick, or old, and they talked about it. No 
one found fault with these, though some laughed 
and said “ a penny in the savings jar makes more 
noise than when it is full of gold.” Even when 
folks got married they were exhorted by the min- 
ister to save money, “ so as to have something to 
give to the poor.” 

Now when the fairies, that work down under- 
ground, heard that the Dutch had learned the use 
of money, and had even built a mint to stamp the 
metal, they held a feast to talk over what they 
should do to help or harm. In any event, they 
wanted to have some fun with the mortals above 
ground. 

That has always been the way with kabouters. 
They are in for fun, first, last, and always. So, 
with punches and hammers, they made counter- 
feit money. Then, in league with the elves, they 
began also to delude misers and make them be- 
lieve that much money makes men happy. 

A long time after the mint had been built, two 
kabouters met to talk over their adventures. 

“ It is wonderful what fools these creatures 
called men are,” said the first one. “ There’s 
old Vrek. He has been hoarding coins for the 
last fifty years. Now, he has a pile of gold in 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


179 

guilders and stivers, but there’s hardly anything 
of his old self left. His soul is as small as a 
shrimp. I whispered to him not to let out his 
money in trade, but to keep it shut up. His 
strong box is full to bursting, but what went into 
the chest has oozed out of the man. He died, 
last night, and hardly anybody considers him 
worth burying. Some one on the street to-day 
asked what Vrek had left behind. The answer 
was ‘ Nothing — he took it all with him, for he 
had so little to take.’ ” 

“ That’s jolly,” said the older kabouter, who 
was a wicked looking fellow. “ I’ll get some fun 
out of this. To shrivel up souls will be my busi- 
ness henceforth. There’s nothing like this new- 
fangled business of getting money, that will do it 
so surely.” 

So this ugly old imp went “ snooping” around, 
as the Dutch say, about people who sneak and 
dodge in and out of places, to which they ought 
not to go, and in houses where they should not 
be found. This imp’s purpose was to make men 
crazy on the subject of making money, when they 
tried, as many of them did, to get rich quickly in 
mean ways. Sorry to tell, the imp found a good 
many promising specimens to work upon, at his 
business of making some wise men foolish. He 
taught them to take out of their souls what they 
hoarded away. To such fellows, when they be- 


i8o 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


came misers, he gave the name of “ Schim,” 
which means a shadow. It was believed by some 
people that such shrivelled up wretches had no 
bowels. 

Soon after this, a great meeting of kabouters 
was held, in the dark realms below ground. 
Each one told what he had been doing on the 
earth. After the little imps had reported, the 
chief kabouter, when his turn came, cried out: 

“ I shall tell of three brothers, and what each 
one did with the first silver penny he earned.” 

“ Go on,” they all cried. 

“ I’ve caught one schim young. He married 
a wife only last year, but he won’t give her one 
gulden a year to dress on. He skimps the table, 
pares the cheese till the rind is as thin as paper, 
and makes her live on skim milk and barley. 
Besides this, he won’t help the poor with a stiver. 
I saw him put away a bright and shining silver 
penny, fresh from the mint. He hid coin and 
pocketbook in the bricks of a chimney. So I 
climbed down from the roof, seized both and ran 
away. I smeared the purse with wax and hid 
it in the thick rib of a boat, by the wharf. There 
the penny will gather mould enough. Ha ! Ha ! 
Ha!” 

At this, the little imps broke out into a titter 
that sounded like the cackle of a hen trying to tell 
she had laid an egg. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


181 


“ Good for you ! Serves the old schim right,’ 1 
said a good kabouter, who loved to help human 
beings. “ Now, I’ll tell you about his brother, 
who has a wife and baby. He feeds and 
clothes them well, and takes good care of his old 
mother. 

“ Almost every week he helps some poor little 
boy, or girl, that has no mother or father. I 
heard him say he wished he could take care of 
poor orphans. So, when he was asleep, at night, 
I whispered in his ear and made him dream. 

“ 4 Put away your coin where it won’t get 
mouldy and show that a penny that keeps moving 
is not like a rolling stone that gathers no moss. 
Deliver it to the goldsmiths for interest and leave 
it in your will to increase, until it becomes a great 
sum. Then, long after you are dead, the money 
you have saved and left for the poor weesies 
(orphans) will build a house for them. It will 
furnish food and beds and pay for nurses that 
will care for them, and good women who will be 
like mothers. Other folks, seeing what you have 
done, will build orphan houses. Then we shall 
have a Wees House (orphan asylum) in every 
town. No child, without a father or mother, in 
all Holland, will have to cry for milk or bread. 
Don’t let your penny mould.’ 

“ The third brother, named Spill-penny, woke 
up on the same morning, with a headache. He 


182 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


remembered that he had spent his silver penny at 
the gin house, buying drinks for a lot of worthless 
fellows like himself. He and his wife, with little 
to eat, had to wear ragged clothes, and the baby 
had not one toy to play with. When his wife 
gently chided him, he ran out of the house in bad 
humor. Going to the tap room, he ordered a 
drink of what we call ‘ Dutch courage,’ that 
is, a glass of gin, and drank it down. Then what 
do you think he did? ” 

“ Tell us,” cried the imps uproariously. 

“ He went into a clothing house, bought a suit 
of clothes, and had it ‘ charged.’ ” 

“ That’s it. I’ve known others like him,” said 
an old imp. 

“ Now it was kermiss day in the village, and all 
that afternoon and evening this spendthrift was 
roystering with his fellow ‘ zuip zaks ’ (boon 
companions) . With them, it was ‘ always drunk, 
always dry.’ Near midnight, being too full of 
gin, he stumbled in the gutter, struck his head on 
the curb, and fell down senseless. 

“ Her husband not coming home that night, 
the distracted wife went out early in the morning. 
She found several men lying asleep on the side- 
walks or in the gutters. She turned each one 
over, just as she did buckwheat cakes on the 
griddle, to see if this man or that was hers. At 
last she discovered her worthless husband, but no 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 183 

shaking or pulling could awake him. He was 
dead. 

“ Now there was a covetous undertaker in 
town, who carted away the corpse, and then told 
the widow that she must spend much money on 
the funeral, in order to have her husband buried 
properly; or else, the tongues of the neighbors 
would wag. So the poor woman had to sell her 
cow, the only thing she had, and was left poorer 
than ever. That was the end of Spill-penny.” 

“ A jolly story,” cried the kabouters in chorus. 
“ Served him right. Now tell us about Vrek the 
miser. Go on.” 

“ Well, the saying ‘ Much coin, much care,’ is 
hardly true of him, for I and my trusty helpers 
ran away with all he had. With his first silver 
penny he began to hoard his money. He has 
been hunting for years for that penny, but has 
not found it. It will be rather mouldy, should 
he find it, but that he never will.” 

“ Why not? ” asked a young imp. 

“ For a good reason. He would not pay his 
boatmen their wages. So they struck, and re- 
fused to work. When he tried to sail his own 
boat, it toppled over and sunk, and Vrek was 
drowned. His wife was saved the expenses of a 
funeral, for his carcass was never found, and the 
covetous undertaker lost a job.” 

“ What of the third one? ” they asked. 


184 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


“ Oh, Mynheer Eerlyk, you mean? No harm 
can come to him. Everybody loves him and he 
cares for the orphans. There will be no mouldy 
penny in his house.” 

Then the meeting broke up. The good 
kabouters were happy. The bad ones, the imps, 
were sorry to miss what they hoped would be a 
jolly story. 

When a thousand years passed away and the 
age of newspapers and copper pennies had come, 
there were no descendants of the two brothers 
Spill-penny and Schim; but of Mynheer Eerlyk 
there were as many as the years that had flown 
since he made a will. In this document, he or- 
dered that his money, in guilders of gold and 
pennies of silver, should remain at compound in- 
terest for four hundred years. In time, the ever 
increasing sum passed from the goldsmiths to the 
bankers, and kept on growing enormously. At 
last this large fortune was spent in building hun- 
dreds of homes for orphans. 

According to his wish, each girl in the asylum 
dressed in clothes that were of the colors on the 
city arms. In Amsterdam, for example, each 
orphan child’s frock is half red and half black, 
with white aprons, and the linen and lace caps are 
very neat and becoming to their rosy faces. In 
Friesland, where golden hair and apple blossom 
cheeks are so often seen with the white lace and 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 185 

linen, some one has called the orphan girls 
“ Apples of gold in pictures of silver.” Among 
the many glories of the Netherlands is her care 
for the aged and the orphans. 

One of the thirty generations of the Eerlyks 
read one day in the newspaper: 

“ Last week, while digging a very deep canal, 
some workman struck his pickaxe against timbers 
that were black with age, and nearly as hard as 
stone. These, on being brought up, showed that 
they were the ribs of an ancient boat. Learned 
men say that there was once a river here, which 
long since dried up. All the pieces of the boat 
were recovered, and, under the skilful hands of 
our ship carpenters, have been put together and 
the whole vessel is now set up and on view in our 
museum.” 

“ We’ll go down to-morrow on our way home 
from school, and see the curiosity,” cried one of 
the Eerlyk boys, clapping his hands. 

“ Wait,” said his father, “ there’s more in the 
story. 

“ To-day, the janitor of the museum, while ex- 
amining a wide crack in one of the ribs, which 
was covered with wax, picked this substance 
away. He poked his finger in the crack, and 
finding something soft, pulled it out. It was a 
rough leather purse, inside of which was a coin, 
mouldy with age and dark as the wood. Even 


i86 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


after cleaning it with acid, it was hard to read 
what was stamped on it; but, strange to say, the 
face of the coin had left its impression on the 
leather, which had been covered with wax. From 
this, though the metal of the coin was black, and 
the mould thick on the coin, what they saw showed 
that it was a silver penny of the age of Charle- 
magne, or the ninth century.” 

“ Charlemagne is French, father, but we call 
him Karel de Groot, or Charles the Great.” 

“ Yes, my son. Don’t you hear Karel’s Klok 
(the curfew) sounding? ’Tis time for little folks 
to go to bed.” 


THE GOLDEN HELMET 


F OR centuries, more than can be counted on 
the fingers of both hands, the maidens and 
mothers of Friesland have worn a helmet 
of gold covering the crown and back of their 
heads, and with golden rosettes at each ear. It 
marks the Frisian girl or woman. She is thus 
known by this head-dress as belonging to a glori- 
ous country, that has never been conquered and 
is proudly called Free Frisia. It is a relic of 
the age of gold, when this precious metal was 
used in a thousand forms, not seen to-day. 

Of how and why the golden helmet is worn, 
this is the story: 

In days gone by, when forests covered the 
land and bears and wolves were plentiful, there 
were no churches in Friesland. The people were 
pagans and all worshipped Woden, whom the 
Frisians called Fos-i-te'. Certain trees were 
sacred to him. When a baby was ill, or grown 
people had a disease, which medicine could not 
help, they laid the sick one at the foot of the holy 
tree, hoping for health soon to come. But, 
should the patient die under the tree, then the 
sorrowful friends were made glad, if the leaves 
187 


i88 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


of the tree fell upon the corpse. It was death 
to any person who touched the sacred tree with 
an axe, or made kindling wood, even of its 
branches. 

Now among the wild people of the north, who 
ate acorns and were clothed in the skins of ani- 
mals, there came, from the Christian lands of the 
south, a singer with his harp. Invited to the 
royal court, he sang sweet songs. To these the 
king’s daughter listened with delight, until the 
tears, first of sorrow and then of joy, rolled 
down her lovely cheeks. 

This maiden was the pride of her father, be- 
cause of her sweet temper and willing spirit, while 
all the people boasted of her beauty. Her eyes 
were of the color of a sky without clouds. No 
spring flower could equal the pink and rose in 
her cheeks. Her lips were like the red coral, 
which the ship men brought from distant shores. 
Her long tresses rivalled gold in their glory. 
And, because her father worshipped Fos-i-te', the 
god of justice, and his daughter was always so 
fair to all her playmates, he, in his pride of her, 
gave her the name Fos-te-di'-na, that is, the dar- 
ling of Fos-i-te', or the Lady of Justice. 

The singer from the south sang a new song, 
and when he played upon his harp his music was 
apt to be soft and low; sometimes sad, even, and 
often appealing. It was so much finer, and oh! 








DUTCH FAIRY TALES 189 

so different, from what the glee men and harpers 
in the king’s court usually rendered for the lis- 
tening warriors. Instead of being about fight- 
ing and battle, or the hunting of wolves and bears, 
of stags and the aurochs, it was of healing the 
sick and helping the weak. In place of battles 
and the exploits of war lords, in fighting and kill- 
ing Danes, the harper’s whole story was of other 
things and about gentle people. He sang 
neither of war, nor of the chase, nor of fighting 
gods, nor of the storm maidens, that carry up to 
the sky, and into the hall of Woden, the souls of 
the slain on the battlefield. 

The singer sang of the loving Father in 
Heaven, who sent his dear Son to earth to live and 
die, that men might be saved. He made music 
with voice and instrument about love, and hope, 
and kindness to the sick and poor, of charity to 
widows and to orphans, and about the delights 
of doing good. He closed by telling the story 
of the crown of thorns, how wicked men nailed 
this good prophet to a cross, and how, when ten- 
der-hearted women wept, the Holy Teacher told 
them not to weep for him, but for themselves 
and their children. This mighty lord of noble 
thoughts and words lived what he taught. He 
showed greatness in the hour of death, by first 
remembering his mother, and then by forgiving 
his enemies. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


190 

“ What! forgive an enemy? Forgive even the 
Danes? What horrible doctrine do we hear!” 
cried the men of war. “ Let us kill this singer 
from the south.” And they beat their swords on 
their metal shields, till the clangor was deafen- 
ing. The great hall rang with echoes of the 
din, as if for battle. The Druids, or pagan 
priests, even more angry, applauded the action 
of the fighting men. 

But Fos-te-di'-na rushed forward to shield the 
harper, and her long golden hair covered him. 

“ No! ” said the king to his warriors. “ This 
man is my guest. I invited him and he shall be 
safe here.” 

Sullen and bitter in their hearts, both priests 
and war men left the hall, breathing out revenge 
and feeling bound to kill the singer. Soon all 
were quiet in slumber, for the hour was late. 

Why were the pagan followers of the king so 
angry with the singer? 

The answer to this question is a story in itself. 

Only three days before, a party of Christian 
Danes had been taken prisoners in the forest. 
They had come, peaceably and without arms, into 
the country; for they wanted to tell the Frisians 
about the new religion, which they had themselves 
received. In the cold night air, they had, un- 
wittingly, cut off some of the dead branches of a 
tree sacred to the god Fos-i-te' to kindle a fire. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


191 

A spy, who had closely watched them, ran and 
told his chief. Now, the Christian Danes were 
prisoners and would be given to the hungry 
wolves to be torn to pieces. That was the law 
concerning sacrilege against the trees of the 
gods. 

Some of the Frisians had been to Rome, the 
Eternal City, and had there learned, from the 
cruel Romans, how to build great enclosures, not 
of stone but of wood. Here, on holidays, they 
gave their prisoners of war to the wild beasts, for 
the amusement of thousands of the people. The 
Frisians could get no lions or tigers, for these 
fierce brutes live in hot countries; but they sent 
hundreds of hunters into the woods for many 
miles around. These bold fellows drove the deer, 
bears, wolves, and the aurochs within an ever 
narrowing circle towards the pits. Into these, 
dug deep in the ground and covered with 
branches and leaves, the animals fell down and 
were hauled out with ropes. The deer were kept 
for their meat, but the bears and wolves were 
shut up, in pens, facing the great enclosure. 
When maddened with hunger, these ravenous 
beasts of prey were to be let loose on the Chris- 
tian Danes. Several aurochs, made furious by 
being goaded with pointed sticks, or pricked by 
spears, were to rush out and trample the poor 
victims to death. 


192 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


The heart of the beautiful Fos-te-di'-na, who 
had heard the songs of the singer of faith in the 
one God and love for his creatures, was deeply 
touched. She resolved to set the captives free. 
Being a king’s daughter, she was brave as a man. 
So, at midnight, calling a trusty maid-servant, 
she, with a horn lantern, went out secretly to the 
prison pen. She unbolted the door, and, in the 
name of their God and hers, she bade the pris- 
oners return to their native land. 

How the wolves in their pen did roar, when, 
on the night breeze, they sniffed the presence of 
a newcomer! They hoped for food, but got 
none. 

The next morning, when the crowd assembled, 
but found that they were to be cheated of their 
bloody sport, they raged and howled. Coming 
to the king, they demanded his daughter’s pun- 
ishment. The pagan priests declared that the 
gods had been insulted, and that their anger 
would fall on the whole tribe, because of the in- 
jury done to their sacred tree. The hunters 
swore they would invade the Danes’ land and 
burn all their churches. 

Fos-te-di'-na was summoned before the coun- 
cil of the priests, who were to decide on the pun- 
ishment due her. Being a king’s daughter, they 
could not put her to death by throwing her to 
the wolves. 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


*93 

Even as the white-bearded high priest spoke, 
the beautiful girl heard the fierce creatures howl- 
ing, until her blood curdled, but she was brave 
and would not recant. 

In vain they threatened the maiden, and in- 
voked the wrath of the gods upon her. Bravely 
she declared that she would suffer, as her Lord 
did, rather than deny him. 

“ So be it,” cried the high priest. “ Your own 
words are your sentence. You shall wear a 
crown of thorns.” 

Fos-te-di'-na was dismissed. Then the old 
men sat long, in brooding over what should be 
done. They feared the gods, but were afraid, 
also, to provoke their ruler to wrath. They 
finally decided that the maiden’s life should be 
spared, but that for a whole day, from sunrise to 
sunset, she should stand in the market-place, with 
a crown of sharp thorns pressed down hard upon 
her head. The crowd should be allowed to revile 
her for being a Christian and none be punished; 
but no vile language was to be allowed, or stones 
or sticks were to be thrown at her. 

Fos-te-di'-na refused to beg for mercy and 
bravely faced the ordeal. She dressed herself in 
white garments, made from the does and fawns — 
free creatures of the forest — and unbound her 
golden tresses. Then she walked with a firm 
step to the centre of the market-place. 


i 9 4 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


“ Bring the thorn-crown for the blasphemer of 
Fos-i-te',” cried the high priest. 

This given to him, the king’s daughter kneeled, 
and the angry old man, his eyes blazing like fire, 
pressed the sharp thorns slowly, down and hard, 
upon the maiden’s brow. Quickly the red blood 
trickled down over her golden hair and face. 
Then in long, narrow lines of red, the drops fell, 
until the crimson stains were seen over the back, 
front, and sides of her white garments. 

But without wincing, the brave girl stood up, 
and all day long, while the crowd howled, in 
honor of their gods, and rough fellows jeered at 
her, Fos-te-di'-na was silent and patient, like her 
Great Example. Inwardly, she prayed the 
Father of all to pardon and forgive. There were 
not a few who pitied the bleeding maiden wear- 
ing the cruel crown, that drew the blood that 
stained her shining hair and once white clothing. 

Years passed by and a great change came over 
land and people. The very scars on Fos-te- 
di'-na’s forehead softened the hearts of the peo- 
ple. Thousands of them heard the words of the 
good missionaries. Churches arose, on which 
was seen the shining cross. Idols were abolished 
and the trees, once sacred to the old gods, were 
cut down. Meadows, rich with cows, smiled 
where wolves had roamed. The changes, even in 
ten years, were like those in a fairy tale. Best of 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


l 95 

all, a Christian prince from the south, grandson 
of Charlemagne, fell in love with Fos-te-di'-na, 
now queen of the country. He sought her hand, 
and won her heart, and the date for the marriage 
was fixed. It was a great day for Free Frisia. 
The wedding was to be in a new church, built on 
the very spot where Fos-te-di'-na had stood, in 
pain and sorrow, when the crown of thorns was 
pressed upon her brow. 

On that morning, a bevy of pretty maidens, 
all dressed in white, came in procession to the 
palace. One of them bore in her hands a golden 
crown, with plates coming down over the fore- 
head and temples. It was made in such a way 
that, like a helmet, it completely covered and 
concealed the scars of the sovereign lady. So 
Fos-te-di'-na was married, with the golden hel- 
met on her head. “ But which,” asked some, 
44 was the more glorious, her long tresses, floating 
down her back, or the shining crown above it? ” 
Few could be sure in making answer. 

Instead of a choir singing hymns, the harper, 
who had once played in the king’s hall, now an 
older man, had been summoned, with his harp, 
to sing in solo. In joyous spirits, he rendered 
into the sweet Frisian tongue, two tributes in 
song to the crowned and glorified Lord of all. 

One praised the young guest at the wedding at 
Cana, Friend of man, who turned water into 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


196 

wine; the other, “The Great Captain of our 
Salvation,” who, in full manly strength, suffered, 
thorn-crowned, for us all. 

Then the solemn silence, that followed the 
song, was broken by the bride’s coming out of 
the church. Though by herself alone, without 
adornment, Fos-te-di'-na was a vision of beauty. 
Her head-covering looked so pretty, and the 
golden helmet was so becoming, that other 
maidens, also, when betrothed, wished to wear it. 
It became the fashion — for Christian brides, on 
their wedding days, to put on this glorified crown 
of thorns. 

All the jewelers approved of the new bridal 
head-dress, and in time this golden ornament was 
worn in Friesland every day. Thus it has come 
to pass that the Frisian helmet, which is the 
glorified crown of thorns, is, in one form or an- 
other, worn even in our day. When Fos-te- 
di'-na’s first child, a boy, was born, the happy 
parents named him William, which is only an- 
other word for Gild Helm. Out from this north- 
ern region, and into all the seventeen provinces 
of the Netherlands, the custom spread. In one 
way or another, one can discern, in the head- 
dresses or costumes of the Dutch and Flemish 
women, the relics of ancient history. 

When Her Majesty, the Dutch Queen, visits 
the Frisians, in the old land of the north, which 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


*97 


her fathers held so dear, she, out of compliment 
to Free Frisia, wears the ancient costume, sur- 
mounted by the golden helm. Those who know 
the origin of the name Wilhelmina read in it the 
true meaning, which is, 

“ The Sovereign Lady of the Golden Hehn. ,, 


WHEN WHEAT WORKED WOE 


M ANY a day has the story-teller wan- 
dered along the dykes, which overlook 
the Zuyder Zee. Once there were 
fertile fields, and scores of towns, where water 
now covers all. Then fleets of ships sailed on the 
bosom of Lake Flevo, and in the river which ran 
into the sea. Bright and beautiful cities dotted 
the shores, and church bells chimed merrily for 
the bridal, or tolled in sympathy for the sorrow- 
ing. Many were the festal days, because of the 
wealth, which the ships brought from lands near 
and far. 

But to-day the waters roll over the spot and 
“ The Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee ” are a 
proverb. Yet all are not dead, in one and the 
same sense. Some lie far down under the waves, 
their very names forgotten, because of the ocean’s 
flood, which in one night, centuries ago, rushed 
in to destroy. Others languished, because wealth 
came no longer in the ships, and the seaports 
dried up. And one, because of a foolish woman, 
instead of holding thousands of homes and peo- 
198 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


l 99 

pie, is to-day only a village nestling behind the 
dykes. It holds a few hundred people and only a 
fragment of land remains of its once great area. 

In the distant ages of ice and gravel, when the 
long and high glaciers of Norway poked their 
cold noses into Friesland, Stavoren held the 
shrine of Stavo, the storm-god. The people were 
very poor, but many pilgrims came to worship 
at Stavo’s altars. After the new religion came 
into the land, wealth increased, because the ships 
traded with the warm lands in the south. A great 
city sprang up, to which the counts of Holland 
granted a charter, with privileges second to none. 
It was written that Stavoren should have “ the 
same freedom which a free city enjoys from this 
side of the mountains (the Alps) to the sea.” 

Then there came an age of gold in Stavoren. 
People were so rich, that the bolts and hinges 
and the keys and locks of their doors were made 
of this precious yellow metal. In some of the 
houses, the parlor floor was paved with ducats 
from Spain. 

Now in this city lived a married couple, whose 
wealth came from the ships. The man, a mer- 
chant, was a simple hearted and honest fellow, 
who worked hard and was easily pleased. 

But his wife was discontented, always peevish 
and never satisfied with anything. Even her 
neighbors grew tired of her whining and com- 


200 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


plaints. They declared that on her tombstone 
should be carved these words: 

“ She wanted something else ” 

Now on every voyage, made by the many 
ships he owned, the merchant charged his cap- 
tains to bring home something rare and fine, as 
a present to his wife. Some pretty carving or 
picture, a roll of silk for a dress, a lace collar, a 
bit of splendid tapestry, a shining jewel; or, it 
may be, a singing bird, a strange animal for a 
pet, a barrel of fruit, or a box of sweetmeats 
was sure to be brought. With such gifts, 
whether large or small, the husband hoped to 
please his wife. 

But in this good purpose, he could never suc- 
ceed. So he began to think that it was his own 
fault. Being only a man, he could not tell 
what a woman wanted. So he resolved to try his 
own wits and tastes, to see if he could meet his 
wife’s desires. 

One day, when one of his best captains was 
about to sail on a voyage to the northeast, to 
Dantzig, which is almost as far as Russia, he 
inquired of his bad-tempered vrouw what he 
should bring her. 

“ I want the best thing in the world,” said she. 
“ Now this time, do bring it to me.” 

The merchant was now very happy. He told 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES T 201 

the captain to seek out and bring back what he 
himself might think was the best thing on earth; 
but to make sure, he must buy a cargo of wheat. 

The skipper went on board, hoisted anchor 
and set sail. Using his man’s wits, he also de- 
cided that wheat, which makes bread, was the 
very thing to be desired. In talking to his 
mates and sailors, they agreed with him. Thus, 
all the men, in this matter, were of one mind, and 
the captain dreamed only of jolly times when on 
shore. On other voyages, when he had hunted 
around for curiosities to please the wife of the 
boss, he had many and anxious thoughts ; but 
now, he was care-free. 

Ip Dantzig, all the ship’s men had a good time, 
for the captain made “ goed koop ” (a fine bar- 
gain) . Then the vessel, richly loaded with grain, 
turned its prow homeward. Arriving at Sta- 
voren, the skipper reported to the merchant, to 
tell him of much money made, of a sound cargo 
obtained, of safe arrival, and, above all, plenty 
of what would please his wife; for what on earth 
could be more valuable than wheat, which makes 
bread, the staff of life? 

At lunch time, when the merchant came home, 
his wife wanted to know what made him look 
so joyful. Had he made “ goed koop ” that 
day? 

Usually, at meal time, this quiet man hardly 


202 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


spoke two words an hour. To tell the truth, he 
sometimes irritated his wife because of his silence, 
but to-day he was voluble. 

The man of wealth answered, “ I have a joyful 
surprise for you. I cannot tell you now. You 
must come with me and see.” 

After lunch, he took his wife on board the 
ship, giving a wink of his eye to the skipper, 
who nodded to the sailors, and then the stout 
fellows opened the hatches. There, loaded to 
the very deck, was the precious grain. The mer- 
chant looked up, expecting to see and hear his 
wife clap her hands with joy. 

But the greedy woman turned her back on 
him, and flew into a rage. 

“ Throw it all overboard, into the water,” she 
screamed. “ You wretch, you have deceived 
me.” 

The husband tried to calm her and explain that 
it was his thought to get wheat, as the world’s 
best gift, hoping thus to please her. 

At that moment, some hungry beggars stand- 
ing on the wharf, heard the lady’s loud voice, 
and falling on their knees cried to her: 

“ Please, madame, give us some of this wheat; 
we are starving.” 

“ Yes, lady, and there are many poor in 
Stavoren, in spite of all its gold,” said the cap- 
tain. “Why not divide this wheat among the 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


203 

needy, if you are greatly disappointed? Y r ou 
will win praise for yourself. In the name of 
God, forgive my boldness, and do as I ask. 
Then, on the next voyage, I shall sail as far as 
China and will get you anything you ask ! ” 

But the angry woman would listen to no one. 
She stayed on the ship, urging on the sailors, 
with their shovels, until every kernel was cast 
overboard. 

“ Never again will I try to please you,” said 
her husband. “ The hungry will curse you, and 
you may yet suffer for food, because of this wil- 
ful waste, which will make woful want. Even 
you will suffer.” 

She listened at first in silence, and then put 
her fingers in her ears to hear no more. Proud 
of her riches, with her voice in a high key, she 
shouted, “ I ever want? What folly to say so! 
I am too rich.” Then, to show her contempt 
for such words, she slipped off a ring from her 
finger and threw it into the waters of the harbor. 
Her husband almost died of grief and shame, 
when he saw that it was her wedding ring, which 
she had cast overboard. 

“ Hear you all ! When that ring comes back 
to me, I shall be hungry and not before,” said 
she, loud enough to be heard on ship, wharf, and 
street. Gathering up her skirts, she stepped 
upon the gangway, tripping to the shore, and 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


204 

past the poor people, who looked at her in 
mingled hate and fear. Then haughtily, she 
strode to her costly mansion. 

Now to celebrate the expected new triumph 
and to show off her wealth and luxury, with the 
numerous curiosities brought her from many 
lands, the proud lady had already invited a score 
of guests. When they were all seated, the first 
course of soup was served in silver dishes, which 
every one admired. As the fish was about to be 
brought in, to be eaten off golden plates, the 
butler begged the lady’s permission to bring in 
first, from the chief cook, something rare and 
wonderful, that he had found in the mouth of the 
fish, which was waiting, already garnished, on 
the big dish. Not dreaming what it might be, 
the hostess clapped her hands in glee, saying to 
those at the table : 

“ Perhaps now, at last, I shall get what I have 
long waited for — the best thing in the world.” 

“ We shall all hope so,” the guests responded 
in chorus. 

But when the chief cook came into the banquet 
hall, and, bowing low, held before his mistress a 
golden salver, with a finger ring on it, the proud 
lady turned pale. 

It was the very ring which, in her anger, she 
had tossed overboard the day before. To add to 
her shame, she saw from the look of horror on 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


205 

their faces, that the guests had recognized the 
fact that it was her wedding token. 

This was only the beginning of troubles. That 
night, her husband died of grief and vexation. 
The next day, the warehouses, stored with valu- 
able merchandise of all sorts, were burned to the 
ground. 

Before her husband had been decently buried, 
a great tempest blew down from the north, and 
news came that four of his ships had been 
wrecked. Their sailors hardly escaped with 
their lives, and both they and their families in 
Stavoren were now clamoring for bread. 

Even when she put on her weeds of grief, these 
did not protect the widow from her late husband’s 
creditors. She had to sell her house and all that 
was in it, to satisfy them and pay her debts. 
She had even to pawn her ring to the Lombards, 
the goldsmiths of the town, to buy money for 
bread. 

Now that she was poor, none of the former rich 
folks, who had come to her grand dinners, would 
look at her. She had even to beg her bread on 
the streets; for who wanted to help the woman 
who wasted wheat? She was glad to go to the 
cow stalls, and eat what the cattle left. Before 
the year ended, she was found dead in a stable, in 
rags and starvation. Thus her miserable life 
ended. Without a funeral, but borne on a bier, 


2o6 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


by two men, she was buried at the expense of the 
city, in the potter’s field. 

But even this was not the end of the fruits of 
her wickedness, for the evil she did lived after 
her. It was found that, from some mysterious 
cause, a sand bar was forming in the river. This 
prevented the ships from coming up to the docks. 
With its trade stopped, the city grew poorer 
every day. What was the matter? 

By and by, at low tide, some fishermen saw a 
green field under the surface of the harbor. It 
was not a garden of seaweed, for instead of leaves 
whirling with the tide, there were stalks that 
stood up high. The wheat had sprouted and 
taken root. In another month the tops of these 
stalks were visible above the water. But in such 
soil as sand, the wheat had reverted to its wild 
state. It was good for nothing, but only did 
harm. 

For, while producing no grain for food, it held 
together the sand, which rolled down the river 
and had come all the way from the Alps to the 
ocean. Of old, this went out to sea and kept the 
harbor scoured clean, so that the ships came 
clear up to the wharves. Then, on many a 
morning, a wealthy merchant, whose house was 
close to the docks, looked out of his window to 
find the prows, of his richly laden ships, poked 
almost into his bedroom, and he liked it. Yen- 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


207 


turesome boys even climbed from their cots down 
the bowsprits, on to the deck of their fathers’ 
vessels. Of such sons, the fathers were proud' 
knowing that they would make brave sailors 
and navigate spice ships from the Indies. It 
was because of her brave mariners, that Stavoren 
had gained her glory and greatness, being famed 
in all the land. 

But now, within so short a time, the city’s 
renown and wealth had faded like a dream. By 
degrees, the population diminished, commerce 
became a memory, and ships a curiosity. The 
people, that were left, had to eat rye and barley 
bread, instead of wheat. Floods ruined the 
farmers and washed away large part s of the 
town, so that dykes had to be built to save what 
was left. 

More terrible than all, the ocean waves rolled 
in and wiped out cities, towns, and farms, sinking 
churches, convents, monasteries, warehouses, 
wharves, and docks, in one common ruin, hidden 
far down below. 

To this day the worthless wheat patch, that 
spoiled Stavoren, is called “ Vrouwen Zand,” or 
the Lady’s Sand. Instead of being the staff of 
life, as Nature intended, the wheat, because of a 
power of evil greater than that of a thousand 
wicked fairies, became the menace of death to 
ruin a rich city. 


2o8 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


No wonder the Dutch have a proverb, which 
might be thus translated: 

“ Peevishness perverts wheat into weeds 
But a sweet temper turns a field into gold.” 


WHY THE STORK LOVES HOLLAND 


BOVE all countries in Europe, this bird. 



wise in the head and long in the legs, 


loves Holland. Flying all the way from 
Africa, the stork is at home among dykes and 
windmills. 

Storks are seen by the thousands in Holland 
and Friesland. Sometimes they strut in the 
streets, not in the least frightened or disturbed. 
They make their nests among the tiles and chim- 
neys, on the red roofs of the houses, and they 
rear their young even on the church towers. 

If a man sets an old cart wheel flat on a tree- 
top, the storks accept this, as an invitation to 
come and stay. At once they proceed, first of 
all, to arrange their toilet, after their long flight. 
They do this, even before they build their nest. 
You can see them, by the hour, preening their 
feathers and combing their plumage, with their 
long bills. Then, as solemnly as a boss mason, 
they set about gathering sticks and hay for their 
house. They never seem to be in a hurry. 

A stork lays on a bit of wood, and then goes 


209 


210 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

at his toilet again, looking around to see that 
other folks are busy. Year after year, a pair 
of storks will use the same nest, rebuilding, or 
repairing it, each spring time. The stork is a 
steady citizen and does not like to change. Once 
treated well in one place, by the landlord, Mr. 
and Mrs. Stork keep the same apartments and 
watch over the family cradle inside the house, to 
see that it is always occupied by a baby. The 
return of the stork is, in Holland, a household 
celebration. 

Out in the fields, Mr. Stork is happy indeed, 
for Holland is the paradise of frogs; so the gen- 
tleman of the red legs finds plenty to eat. He 
takes his time for going to dinner, and rarely 
rushes for quick lunch. After business hours in 
the morning, he lays his long beak among his 
thick breast feathers, until it is quite hidden. 
Then, perched up in the air on one long leg, like 
a stilt, he takes a nap, often for hours. 

With the other leg crossed, he seems to be 
resting on the figure four (4) . 

Towards evening he shakes out his wings, flaps 
them once or twice, and takes a walk, but he is 
never in haste. Beginning his hunt, he soon has 
enough frogs, mice, grubs, worms or insects to 
make a good meal. It is because this bird feels 
so much at home, in town and country, making 
part of the landscax>e, that we so associate to- 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 211 

gether Holland and the stork, as we usually 
do. 

The Dutch proverb pictures the scene, which 
is so common, — “In the same field, the cow eats 
grass; the grayhoun ' unts the hare; and the 
stork helps himself to the frogs.” Indeed, if it 
were not for the stork, Holland would, like old 
Egypt, in the time of Moses, be overrun with 
frogs. 

The Dutch call the stork by the sweet name 
“ Ooijevaar,” or the treasure-bringer. Every 
spring time, the boys and girls, fathers and 
mothers, shout welcome to the white bird from 
Egypt. 

“ What do you bring me? ” is their question 
or thought. 

If the bird deserts its old home on their roof, 
the family is in grief, thinking it has lost its 
luck; but if Daddy Stork, with Mrs. Stork’s ap- 
proval, chooses a new place for their nest, there 
is more rejoicing in that house, than if money 
had been found. “ Where there are nestlings on 
the roof, there will be babies in the house,” is what 
the Dutch say; for both are welcome. 

To tell why the stork loves Holland, we must 
go back to the Africa of a million years ago. 
Then, we shall ask the Dutch fairies how they 
succeeded in making the new land, in the west, 
so popular in the stork world. For what reason 


212 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


did the wise birds emigrate to the cold country 
a thousand miles away? They were so reg- 
ular and punctual, that a great prophet 
wrote: 

“ Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her ap- 
pointed times.” 

Ages ago, there were camels and caravans in 
Africa, but there was no Holland, for the land 
was still under the waves. In India, also, the 
stork was an old bird, that waded in the pools 
and kept the frogs from croaking in terms of the 
multiplication table. Sometimes the stork popu- 
lation increased too fast and some went hungry 
for food; for, the proverb tells us that a stork 
“ died while waiting for the ocean to dry, hoping 
to get a supply of dried fish.” 

When on the coast of the North Sea, the Land 
of a Million Islands was made, the frog emi- 
grants were there first. They poured in so fast, 
that it seemed a question as to who should own 
the country — frogs or men. Some were very 
big, as if ambitious to be bulls. They croaked so 
loud, that they drowned out the fairy music, and 
made the night hideous with their noises. The 
snakes spoiled the country for the little birds, 
while the toads seemed to think that the salt 
ocean had been kept out, and the land made, 
especially for them. 

The Dutch fairies were disgusted at the way 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


21 3 

these reptiles behaved, for they could not enjoy 
themselves, as in the old days. If they went to 
dance in the meadow, on moonlight nights, they 
always found a big bullfrog sitting in their ring, 
mocking them with its bellowing. So when they 
heard about the storks in Africa, and what hearty 
appetites they had, for the various wrigglers, 
crawlers, jumpers and splashers in the waters, 
they resolved to invite them, in a body, to Hol- 
land. 

The Dutch fairies knew nothing of the habits 
of the bird and scarcely imagined how such a 
creature might look, but they heard many pleas- 
ant things about the stork’s good character. The 
wise bird had an excellent reputation, not only 
for being kind to its young, but also for attending 
to. the wants of its parents, when they were old. 
It was even said that in some countries the stork 
was the symbol for filial piety. 

So the fairies of all the Netherlands despatched 
a delegation to Egypt and a congress of storks 
was called to consider this invitation to go west. 
Messengers were at once sent to all the red- 
legged birds, among the bulrushes of the Nile, 
or that lived on the roofs of the temples, or that 
perched on the pyramids, or dwelt on the top of 
old columns, or that stood in rows along the eaves 
of the town houses. The town birds gained their 
living by acting as street cleaners, but the river 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


214 

birds made their meals chiefly on fish, frogs, and 
mice. 

The invitation was discussed in stork meeting, 
and it was unanimously accepted; except by some 
old grannies and grandpops that feared in the 
strange land they would not be well fed. On a 
second motion, it was agreed that only the strong- 
est birds should attempt the flight. Those af raid, 
or too weak to go, must stay behind and attend 
to the old folks. Such a rattle of mandibles was 
never heard in Egypt before, as when this stork 
meeting adjourned. 

Now when storks travel, they go in flocks. 
Thousands of them left Egypt together. High 
in the air, with their broad wings spread and 
their long legs stretched out behind them, they 
covered Europe in a few hours. Then they 
scattered all over the marshy lands of the new 
country. It was agreed that each pair was to 
find its own home. When the cold autumn 
should come, they were to assemble again for 
flight to Egypt. 

It was a new sight for the fairies, the frogs 
and the men, to look over the landscape and see 
these snow white strangers. They were so pretty 
to look at, while promenading over the meadows, 
wading in the ponds and ditches, or standing 
silently by the river banks. Soon, however, these 
foreign birds were very unpopular in bullfrog 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


21 5 


land, and as for the snakes, they thought that 
Holland would be ruined by these hungry 
strangers. On the other hand, it was good news, 
in fairy-land, that all fairies could dance safely 
on their meadow rings, for the bullfrogs were 
now afraid to venture in the grass, lest they 
should be gobbled up, for the frogs could not 
hide from the storks. The new birds could poke 
their big bills so far into the mud-holes, that no 
frog, or snake, big or little, was safe. The 
stork’s red legs were so long, and the birds could 
wade in such deep water, that hundreds of frogs 
were soon eaten up, and there were many 
widows and orphans in the ponds and puddles. 

When the fairies got more acquainted with 
their new guests, and saw how they behaved, they 
nearly died of laughing. They were not sur- 
prised at their diet, or eating habits, but they 
soon discovered that the storks were not song 
birds. Instead of having voices, they seemed to 
talk to each other by clattering their long jaws, 
or snapping their mandibles together. Their 
snowy plumage — all being white but their wing 
feathers — was admired, was envied, and their long 
bright colored legs were a wonder. At first the 
fairies thought their guests wore red stockings 
and they thought how heavy must be the laundry 
work on wash days; for in Holland, everything 
must be clean. 


2l6 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


Of all creatures on earth, as the fairies thought, 
the funniest was seen when Mr. Stork was in 
love. To attract and please his lady love, he 
made the most grotesque gestures. He would 
leap up from the ground and move with a hop, 
skip, and jump. Then he spread out his wings, 
as if to hug his beloved. Then he danced around 
her, as if he were filled with wine. All the time 
he made the best music he knew how, by clatter- 
ing his mandibles together. He intended this 
performance for a sort of love ditty, or serenade. 
The whole program was more amusing than any- 
thing that an ape, goat, or donkey could get up. 
How the fairies did laugh! 

Yet the fairies were very grateful to the storks 
for ridding their meadows of so much vermin. 
How these delicate looking, snow white and 
graceful creatures could put so many snails, 
snakes, tadpoles, and toads into their stomachs 
and turn them into snow white feathers, won- 
derful wings and long legs, as red as a rose, was 
a mystery to them. It seemed more wonderful 
than anything which they could do, but as fairies 
have no stomachs and do not eat, this whole 
matter of digestion was a mystery to them. 

Besides the terror and gloom in the frog world, 
every reptile winced and squirmed, when he heard 
of this new enemy. All crawlers, creepers, and 
jumpers had so long imagined that the land was 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


21 7 

theirs and had been made solely for their benefit! 
Nor did they know how to conquer the storks. 
The frog daddies could do nothing, and the frog 
mothers were every moment afraid to let either 
the tadpoles or froggies go out of their sight. 
They worried lest they should see their babies 
caught up in a pair of long, bony jaws, as sharp 
as scissors, there to wriggle and crow, until their 
darlings disappeared within the monster. 

One anecdote of the many that were long told 
in the old Dutch frog ponds was this: showing 
into what dangers curiosity may lead youngsters. 
We put it in quotation marks to show that it was 
told as a true story, and not printed in a book, 
or made up. 

“ A tadpole often teased its froggy mother to 
let it go and see a red pole, of which it had heard 
from a traveller. Mrs. Frog would not at first 
let her son go, but promised that as soon as the 
tadpole lost his tail, and his flippers had turned 
into fore legs, and his hind quarters had properly 
sprouted, so that he could hop out of danger, he 
might then venture on his travels. She warned 
him, however, not to go too near to that curious 
red pole, of which he had heard. Nobody as yet 
found out just what this red thing, standing in 
the water, was ; but danger was suspected by old 
heads, and all little froggies were warned to be 
careful and keep away. In reality, the red stick 


2 18 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


was the leg of a stork, sound asleep, for it was 
taking its usual afternoon nap. The frogs on 
the bank, and those in the pool that held their 
noses above water, to get their breath, had never 
before seen anything like this red stilt, or its 
cross pole; for no bird of this sort had ever before 
flown into their neighborhood. They never sus- 
pected that it was a stork, with its legs shaped 
like the figure four (4). Indeed, they knew 
nothing of its long bill, that could open and shut 
like a trap, catching a frog or snake, and swal- 
lowing it in a moment. 

“ Unfortunately for this uneducated young 
frog, that had never travelled from home, it now 
went too near the red pole, and, to show how 
brave it was, rubbed its nose against the queer 
thing. Suddenly the horrible creature, that had 
only been asleep, woke up and snapped its jaws. 
In a moment, a wriggling froggy disappeared 
from sight into the stomach of a monster, that 
had two red legs, instead of one. At the sight 
of such gluttony, there was an awful splash, for a 
whole row of frogs had jumped from the bank 
into the pool. After this, it was evident that 
Holland was not to belong entirely to the frogs.” 

As for the human beings, they were so happy 
over the war with the vermin and the victory of 
the storks, that they made this bird their pride 
and joy. They heaped honors upon the stork 


DUTCH FAIRY TALES 


219 

as the savior of their country. They placed 
boxes on the roofs of their houses for these birds 
to nest in. All the old cart wheels in the land 
were hunted up. They sawed off the willow trees 
a few feet above the ground, and set the wheels 
in flat, which the storks used as their parlors and 
dressing rooms. 

As for the knights, they placed the figure of the 
stork on their shields, banners, and coats of 
arms, while citizens made this bird prominent on 
their city seals. The capital of the country, The 
Hague, was dedicated to this bird, and, for all 
time, a pond was dug within the city limits, where 
storks were fed and cared for at the public ex- 
pense. Even to-day, many a good story, illus- 
trating the tender affection of The Hague storks 
for their young, is told and enjoyed as an ex- 
ample to Dutch mothers to be the best in the 
world. 

Out in the country at large, in any of the eleven 
provinces, whenever they drained a swamp, or 
pumped out a pond to make a village, it was not 
looked upon as a part of Holland, unless there 
were storks. Even in the new wild places they 
planted stakes on the pumped out dry land, called 
polders. On the top of these sticks were laid as 
invitations for the stork families to come and live 
with the people. Along the roads they stuck 
posts for storks’ nests. It became a custom with 


220 DUTCH FAIRY TALES 

farmers, when the storks came back, to kill the 
fatted calf, or lamb, and leave the refuse meat 
out in the fields for a feast to these bird visitors. 
A score of Dutch proverbs exist, all of them com- 
plimentary to the bird that loves babies and 
cradles. 

Last of all, the Dutch children, even in the 
reign of Queen Wilhelmina, made letter carriers 
of their friends the treasure-bringers. Tying 
tiny slips of paper to their red legs, they sent 
messages, in autumn, to the boys and girls in the 
old land of the sphinx and pyramids, of Moses, 
and the children of Israel. In the spring time, 
the children’s return messages were received in 
the country which bids eternal welcome to the 
bird named the Bringer of Blessings. 

This is why the storks love Holland. 


Het Einde 








































































































































































































































































































































0002 45 4 4 ^5 



